Mystery Dessert Theater

A month or so ago Stephen and I saw on our church's website (www.countrysidechurch.com) for a Mystery Dinner Theater event happening May 30th. We'd both heard about them before and wanted to go to one, but neither of us had been to one. We signed up right away.

The week after we signed up we were given pamphlets for our characters - Stephen was "Mark" and I was "Maria." The pamphlets had directions for how to play the game, descriptions of the other character couples, and our own personal character backgrounds. We were strictly ordered to not look at each other's pamphlets because there might be secret information in there. :D

My story was fairly simple. "Mark" and I started dating after his twin sister Marilyn was killed by a "fall down some stairs" at our graduation party. (Hmm, suspicious.....) Before, I had been part of a very popular group of people, dating a very popular boy, "Michael." But Michael had never felt right for me; I just dated him because he was an acceptable boy to the group I was a part of. Mark was NOT an acceptable boy, and the leader of my group, "Jenny" (not my friend Jenny!! :D ), had kicked me out of the group when I started dating Mark.

"Mark" was a CIA agent. He won't tell me anymore than that.

Our two characters were happily married with two kids and a dog; "Mark's" cover was that he was a very successful mystery novel writer and traveled a lot to write his books. That's what everybody else knew about us.

Other information everybody had was that one of our classmates, "David," had been killed two nights earlier, and the murderer was suspected to be at the party. So we all had to figure out who the murderer was. We were given confidential information at the start of the party, plus a few goals to accomplish in the course of the evening.

The rest we had to make up! What an adventure! I was glad I only knew a few people in real life at the event--that made it much easier to excuse my acting horrendously toward the people my character was supposed to hate (i.e. "Jenny"). But it was still so awkward at first, with trying to keep everybody's stories straight, checking my notes, having to think really hard to ask the right questions of the right characters.

It got worse as the night wore on--learning so much information! Toward the end of the party, our pastor, Paul, was pelting Steve and I with questions (he was the best question-asker!) and he asked me, "Were you ever in a relationship with 'Michael'?" I had completely forgotten about that part of my character's story, and I said straightforwardly, "Yes. I was." And Paul's reaction was SO dramatic. He gasped at me with big eyes and said, "You never told me that!" and ran off to tell other people!

Somehow Stephen kept all the information straight and wound together a very nice little theory that tied together all the deaths that had happened in our class's history. His theory was off, but he did get the killer right!

The theme was '57 class reunion, so we were supposed to dress in 50s style. I was dressed in a black-and-white shirtdress, white heels and a black chunky necklace. Stephen wore, like 99% of the other guys, a white T-shirt and blue jeans. Guys have it easy, LOL. The music was great! We swing danced to it at the beginning--what fun!

There are a lot of other stories I could tell, but I don't have room for them all here. I really enjoyed it, though. I want to do more so I can get good at it. :)

------------------------------------------------------

In other news...

Stephen's toes haven't healed as quickly as we hoped. He went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago because they had suddenly turned bright pink and swelled up. The doctor said it was because he wasn't cleaning them out well enough and did a pretty brutal cleaning-out on him that day. He also gave us a prescription for cortisporin.

Stephen was in horrible pain all week--worse than it had hurt before the surgery, which really concerned him. So we went back again. The doctor said they were looking better, despite our protests, and cleaned them out again, slightly less brutally this time. He asked us if we'd been using the cortisporin. We hadn't--after an hour and a half wait at Walgreen's, we were told that they didn't have any and couldn't make any, but we could just use cortizone and neosporin and get the same effect. The doctor was annoyed at us or them and emphasized the cortisporin again. So we finally got the cortisporin and Stephen's toes finally started showing signs of healing.

He's still soaking and bandaging them every night. But the good news is, they're finally down to itching instead of hurting. And they are definitely looking better. He has yet another follow-up appointment tomorrow, but I have a feeling the doctor will just say, "They're doing fine. Don't come back." :P

Other updates: I still don't have a job, but worked for Stephen's grandma for a couple weeks and my mom a couple times to earn some spending money. I volunteer at Medical Teams International now, with the REAL. LIFE. Exhibit, a couple hours a week. I'll save that story for another blog, I think.

Stephen and I are still teaching our Iraqi refugee family. School will be ending soon and the kids will no longer have homework for us to help them with, so we aren't sure what God wants us to do with them next. I've gotten to know their personalities and love them to pieces. If my experience with them ends, I will look for other opportunities to teach refugees English, because I honestly do love it.

I love it so much that I've been thinking of going to graduate school to get a master's for teaching English as a second language. I have so much information left to gather about that, though, before I do it. I still don't think I have the constitution for a career in public schools, so I need to find out where else I would go with it.

That's all for now!

The Latest on Medical Drama

Hello everyone, this is an update on Stephen's toe and other issues. The doctor did some research on Stephen and diagnosed him with "neurocardiogenic syncope," which means that he will faint and possibly shake a little if under high stress in anticipation of pain. If you're interested in more medical details of this, they can be found here.

The doctor advised us that Stephen get his surgery done at a hospital under anesthesia, and so Stephen scheduled his surgery for today at 11:30. I was unable to go with him to the hospital because of a prior engagement, but his aunt Carolyn, who we're very grateful to, offered to bring him there and back. I was able to talk to him on the phone and ask Carolyn for details via Facebook chat (got to love the Internet!). He said he's currently in no pain as he's coming off the anesthesia, only suffering a little because of not being able to eat or drink anything today prior to the surgery. The doctor said that he should only need ibuprofen and ice packs to stop the pain from the surgery, which is a relief. Overall, he's recovering really well according to his aunt.

They'll be able to leave the hospital about 3:30. I may update some more when he comes home.

Continue to pray for a quick recovery and the finances to pay for the hospital surgery, which is significantly more expensive than a surgery out of a doctor's clinic, which he was originally supposed to receive. Thank you, everyone, for your support!

Spring Days

Spring has finally arrived! This weekend we had 70-75 degree days, bright and sunny. On Saturday Stephen and I went to the Woodburn Tulip Festival. There aren't a whole lot of tulips blooming yet, so we plan on going again the weekend after next, when there will be seas of color.

Yesterday we had a picnic lunch and went on a bike ride. I haven't been biking in probably 10 years! And the last bike I had ridden on probably didn't have speeds... The bike I have now is 18-speed. I still haven't quite figured it out! But, wobbly as I was, I managed not to fall over or run into anybody.

Unfortunately Stephen's bike is 12 or 13 years old and kind of falling apart. At the end of our ride, his right pedal fell off. He tried to screw it back in, but the piece to screw it into was stripped. So we're looking for a new bike for him so we won't have to give up bike rides.

I'm kind of bruised up from the ride, but I still had a great time. It feels great to exercise--and outdoor biking is a lot of fun.

Stephen and I dyed Easter eggs on Sunday, a tradition from my family. We always had tons of eggs to dye because we kept a bunch of chickens for a while. Easter weekend we will be up with his family.

Medical Drama and Other Drama

Stephen was supposed to get toe surgery done yesterday--just out of his doctor's office, for an ingrown toenail. Unfortunately he worked himself up for weeks about it, and then moreso in the doctor's chair, and he ended up fainting. Poor Stephen.

So the doctor recommended us to a podiatrist to perform the surgery with Stephen under anesthesia. I don't think either of us like that idea much, but we can't, of course, have him fainting off doctor's chairs. Not good.

Stephen twitched while he was out, much like his first fainting incident when we were together. That concerned the doctor some, and he is going to do some research on Stephen's medical history to see if he can pinpoint why this happens to him. He advised Stephen not to drive, although he said he didn't legally need to require him not to drive because of the circumstances surrounding the fainting.

So I will be driving him to and from work and other places this week until the doctor gets back into touch with him with further instruction. I am okay with that. Stephen is not, LOL. He knows I don't particularly like to drive--and him not being able to drive is a big inconvenience, yuck. I told him I'm not worried at all though. I really don't think his twitching is a big deal yet. There have only been two instances of it--both with me, hm. Wonder what that says about my influence on him, LOL. Anyway. I do wish we could get it figured out though. That'd be really nice.

Oh, I should mention that I have to drive Steve's car around, not mine, because my left rear window decided to fall off its track and is now stuck at about halfway. I'm getting it taken care of tomorrow. I hope it doesn't cost much. :P Steve and I are thinking of getting me a new car altogether, because this one seems to be falling apart, even though it's only 3 years old. Grr.

Anyway... Yesterday was quite a rough day for me. Found myself beating myself up a lot for different things throughout the day. I suppose I shouldn't be so hard on myself, like everybody says. I wonder if there's some miracle drug that can keep people from being too hard on themselves? :T

Anyway... So that's my life update for today... Keep us in your prayers.

Job-Seekers, Beware

When people are worried about losing their jobs or not making enough money to support their family, scammers will abound.

Today I had an "interview" with a company. Let me tell you how it went.

First off, they pulled my resume off of Monster.com, called me up and said, "I'm calling about a possible job opportunity with our company. Can you come in for an initial interview this week?" They told me nothing about the job itself. I assumed it was a bank or something, and they were looking for an admin. assistant type position, which is what I've been looking for. I thought I would be interviewed by a couple serious people in business suits about a job at a bank.

But when I arrived at the office today, I found myself plunked down in a conference-like room with four other people and three guys in suits chatting us all up about where we were from and such. First tip-off: it wasn't at all what I expected it was going to be, and they had not told me anything about what it would be like.

We all filled out paper applications, like we were applying at an employment agency. There was a welcome letter in the folders they handed out to us, which I, already suspicious, read thoroughly. It also said nothing about the job, except that it would be as a financial services representative. But it did talk in flying colors about the business. Second and third tip-offs: anything that mentions being a representative, consultant, or distributor means it's a multi-level marketing business, which you must be skeptical of anyway; and if a business you suspect of being multi-level marketing talks about itself in flying colors, you REALLY should be cautious. And still nothing about the job itself.

The "interview" began. A guy talked for an hour and a half. That's all. This is where ALL my scam sensors went off. I nearly walked out after the first 10 minutes, but I knew I couldn't do that without feeling as if I were being a drama queen. So I sat through the entire thing having the worst time keeping a straight face and not outright laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.

Here are the things that were tip-offs to me: 1) you can make 6-figure paychecks in three years off of this job, 2) you earn a 55% bonus on your earnings (but only if you sell $25,000 worth of stuff--in this case, life insurance, stocks, bonds, annuities, etc.), 3) you get promoted really fast, 4) we will pay all your bills in the beginning (for how long? as long as it takes), 5) we are a debt company (how they manage to pay all those bills for upstarters in their company and still remain debt-free is beyond me!), 6) we license our insurance sales people, but it costs $860.

And still nothing about the job itself! But he couldn't stop talking about what a great company it was. We even got three slips of paper in the folders that were apparently "profiles" of "real clients." No last names or locations included.

He had us introduce ourselves after his hour and a half-long spiel was over. He told us to tell him one thing that we would have to have in a job to be happy. And of course, whatever the 5 people said, he spun into "This company is perfect for you!" No matter what they said.

Finally his forever-long talk was over, and we were kind of left wondering what happens next, when I got called out of the conference room. Ironic that I was called first. Do they watch people real close and take them in in order of least to most likely to swallow their bait? LOL. So I went into a room with this assistant manager who was going to question me further to see if I was interested in being part of this "company." He started off asking me if I had any questions for him, which I was grateful for--at least he let me ask questions! I did have plenty, but I could only remember two. I didn't get straight answers for either. The first question I asked was how much the insurances packages sold for, to their customers.

"It depends," he said. "It depends on how much coverage they can get."

"Give me a range."

"It depends," he repeated. "It can go anywhere from $100 a year to thousands a year."

I started to make a further remark but stopped myself. Instead I asked my second question. "How long have you been in this office here?"

"Well, we've been in the area for 30 years," he said.

I couldn't even get a straight answer for how long they've been in the office they were currently at.

I decided to just cut to the chase then. Questioning them further was useless. "I don't think I'm cut out for this job, I really don't," I said. "I'm not a salesperson," was the excuse I gave.

"Well--all right, if that's how you feel," said the man.

LOL.

Ridiculousness.

Job-seekers, beware.

Hair Story

Upon deciding I'd rather not battle rush hour traffic for a 20-minute trip to my mom's, I drove the two or three blocks down to Supercuts from our apartment and went in to get my hair relayered.

I should mention that I don't like getting my hair cut.  I like the results, but I don't like the cutting part.  I have a really sensitive head and all the tugging and combing makes every outing a rather stressful 30 minutes.

The other part I don't like about getting my haircut is deciding what I want them to do.  I'm averse to big changes, but at the same time I don't like the same ol' same ol' all the time.  Today I got a picture off the Internet of long layers, the way I thought I'd like them done.  It happened to be a picture of Ashley Olsen--I hoped the person cutting my hair didn't recongize her and think I worshipped her like some 12-year-olds worship Miley Cyrus.  

Ashley's style was choppier-looking than my current very blah layers, and I liked the freedom with which the layers stood away from her face.  I figured that it was styled, but I thought I could achieve a good replica of the look without a styling.

No such luck there.  I have thick hair and lots of it, and the sheer weight of my hair made my layers look heavy, not lighthearted and fancy-free like Ashley's.  :P  One of these days I'll get around to styling my hair...Maybe.

I still liked the choppiness and was overall satisfied with the job the girl had done, and went up to the counter even contemplating tipping her.  She was such good company.  As Miae asked me if I had a frequent card, I opened my purse to bring out my wallet and....it wasn't there.

I knew instantly what had happened, but seriously hoped I had just left it in my car.  I hurriedly explained that that must've been where it was and darted out to the car to check.

Nope.  No wallet.  I was driving without a license and I had no way to pay her for the haircut I had just received.

I did have my checkbook!  I presented it to her hopefully, but she told me, "Oh, no checks."  She was starting to look worried.

So I explained, with lots of apologetic looks, that I lived just two minutes away and could run home and get it, bring it back and pay her.  Naturally, that made her nervous, but there was really no other choice.  I wondered how she would make sure I came back.  Was there anything I could give her, any possession, that she would consider valuable enough to bring me back for it?  Maybe my purse?  That made me nervous, but at least all my money and ID were in my wallet at home.

"What is your phone number?" she asked me, and I had to laugh to myself--such a simple request!  My phone number.  Of course she could have it.  "And my name is Stephanie," I told her.

That out of the way, I ran to my car and drove the three blocks to the apartment.  Every speed bump I had to go over on the long drive through our apartment complex seemed so superfluous.  I found my wallet right on the couch where I'd left it, after pulling it out to check if I had that frequenter card and forgetting to put it back.

Upon re-entrance to the salon, I was greeted with a joyful, "Stephanie!" from Miae, and now that the drama part was over, I laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation and immediately decided I liked Miae a lot.  Turnover at beauty salons has got to be at least as bad as Domino's, but I sure hope I get to see her again. :)

In all the flurry I forgot to tip her...Maybe next time.

Long Week.

What an interesting week it's been.

Yesterday Stephen and I took my car out to a nearby Blockbuster to rent Indiana Jones.  It was a 3-mile trip.  But when we pulled into the parking lot and parked, we noticed at the same time that my engine was steaming.

We got out to check on it and I got a crash course from Stephen on radiators.  Apparently there are these tubes throughout my engine that carry water.  The tubes carry hot, hot water to the front of the car (the radiator) so it can be cooled and taken back around the engine to keep the parts cool.  So if you hear or see steam coming from your car (we heard AND saw it), it means there's a hole in one of those tubes, and the steam from the hot water is escaping.

That's a bad thing, because it means that water (in the form of steam) is escaping out those tubes.  And if those tubes leak all the water out, there will be nothing to cool my engine down... And that could lead to any number of REALLY BAD things happening!

You learn something new every day.

We couldn't really do much at the time except let it cool off and then drive it back home to make an appointment with a mechanic tomorrow morning.  So we got our movie and drove home.  The car hissed again when we pulled up into our own parking space, although there was less steam. 

When we got inside, I discovered Stephen was under the impression that I was just going to stay home all week or however long I needed to until we got my car looked at.  Normally that would be easy; I usually stay home.  But it had to happen this week of all weeks.

"But...I have a root canal tomorrow at 12:30.  And counseling on Wednesday at 2:00.  And Melanie's at 3:30," I reminded him.

Counseling and Melanie's could slide or be canceled, but the root canal definitely could not.  I've been waiting on it since November, and we've been sitting on pins and needles, praying that the tooth would not get worse before January, when our insurance kicked in for the new year.  We had to get that tooth fixed!

So we had two options:

1) Stephen would try to get the morning off and take the car in tomorrow.  Or if that didn't work...

2) Tomorrow morning I would take Stephen to work, take his car to the dentist and back, and then pick him up from work.

He called his boss to see if it were possible to get the morning off.  She said that a guy who works with him had called in sick, so they needed Stephen there unless the guy could come to work the next morning.  But they wouldn't know until 7:00 the next morning when the guy came in or didn't come in.

So more waiting.  Maybe God's trying to give us some lessons in trust and patience. :)

The next morning Steve got up out of bed at about 7:20 and called into work.  The guy had, indeed, come in, so Stephen got the morning off and took my car to the auto shop.  I had to leave at noon--he told me that I could take his car if he wasn't back in time.  Nervous as that made me (I think I've only driven his car once), I agreed.  Didn't have a whole lot of other choice.

12:00 drew near and I started to get more nervous.  I tried calling Steve, but he had left his phone at home!  Then, at 11:35 or so, I heard my car horn honk outside our apartment.

I opened the door and watched Steve in anticipation as he climbed the stairs.

"So?  Did they get it fixed?"

"Nothing was wrong with it," Steve said.

"What?!  What'd they say?"

"They checked everything and said nothing was wrong.  They said the steam probably came from splashing in a puddle and getting water on one of the hot parts of the car.  And the hissing is the A/C decompressing, because apparently when you put your car on Defrost, it uses the A/C.  They charged me $50 to tell me nothing was wrong with my car, though."

Oy.  Oh well, at least it got a good check-up done! 

"So you can take your car to the dentist appointment," Stephen finished. "I've got to get to work myself."

So the car's fine, but it sure scared us.

I ate a bowl of cereal and some yogurt before I headed into my lovely dentist appointment, knowing from experience that I better eat something, or I'd be in a bad way after all the trauma in my mouth was done.  Have I mentioned this is my 4th root canal in my lifetime?

I have all sorts of mouth and teeth problems.  I think it's part genetic and part hygiene, but I signficantly improved my hygiene after getting that 3rd root canal done and intend to keep doing so, so this shall be a scientific experiment to prove whether it's genes or hygiene.

I swear this root canal was the longest 2 hours of my life.  I don't know if these tooth roots were particularly stupid or what, but in my other 3 root canals, the procedure was pretty straightforward:  drill a hole to the roots.  Clean out the roots.  Fill the roots.  The end.  This time the drilled forever, and then they kept alternating: drill, clean, drill, clean, drill, clean.  UGH.  Enough with the vibrating in my head!!  Finally they got out the clove oil, which I know is the end of the procedure.  And when they were just about done, the doctor said, "Oh, there's a bit of decay here."

More drilling.

On top of all this, I had a headache/neckache when I finally got to sit up, the doctor wouldn't tell me anything during the whole procedure, the hygienist wasn't that great of company either, and at the end of two hours the Novacaine was starting to wear off, so my poor mouth was feeling all the stress of having my mouth clamped open and my teeth drilled into and shoved all around.  :(

The one good thing I have to say was that, because they did this before the tooth got really bad, I didn't have two seconds of hellish pain like I did on those first two root canals, which were absess teeth.  There wasn't any pain like that at all; just a lot of aching.

After the root canal was finished, I went to see the general dentistry gal to fill in the tooth a little bit, in preparation for its crown.  (The guy who does root canals is called an endodontist.) Normally, I don't like to see her, but this time, her chattiness and high-pitched voice was a welcome relief after the silent torture of the endodontical procedure.  And the hygienist was a lot of fun too.  She and the doctor had an amusing conversation about hair color. :)

So out of the dentist chair, up to the payment desk.  I was charged $40 more than expected and given a detailed outline of all the costs for the root canals and the crowns, which sure didn't put Stephen's or my mind at ease about our financial state.  Luckily, upon returning home, I had a few responses to job applications, which I am going to check right now.

Hopefully the rest of this week won't be as stressful as these first two days have been. :P