Monday was a very uneventful day. I didn’t go anywhere, had not planned on going anywhere, and didn’t want to go anywhere. I was in fact productive with personal matters and homework. I am still very behind but it’s becoming not so overwhelming.
Tuesday was as normal. Woke up before the sun and chickens. It would probably not be so hard to get up if we could get to bed before 11pm the night before. Morning classes went as normal. The issue of the day was with Missy having an accident on the way to school and on the way back to the train. Let’s just say I was not happy, and paranoid that she was going to poop in the building. About half way through my history of social work class, I read my email that said my last class, human behavior was cancelled. So this meant I could get on an earlier train, and be home early. I was absolutely happy about this. I caught a 12:56 train. I was home by 2:05pm! From here I started to work on more school work. Missy’s work is awesome; we just need to resolve the breaking issue in harness on route.
Wednesday Missy and I finished up our follow up care with the field rep from GDF. He gave me a slip leather collar. I had never seen it before. It’s like a slip collar, but with a leather buckle. It rides high up on her neck, right behind the ears. Its used when working to know what her head is looking at. For example on my university campus, there are thousands of squirrels and birds. And because she is a dog sometimes she gets distracted. It does not hurt the dogs. When she is working I need her attention to be on our route, not the squirrels, not the birds. With the field rep we walked through my neighborhood using the new collar, we chose to walk in my neighborhood, as there are also lots of squirrels, birds, but bunnies, and dogs too. She did well, for the exception of breaking again in harness on our route. So we decided to reduce Missy’s food from 4 cups to 3 a day. And to give her 1 cup in the morning, and 2 at night. The field rep is also going to check into a high balance handle for my harness.
The afternoon was spent on homework. I finished one paper, so 3 more to go to catch up.
For dinner hubby and I went to my MIL’s house. Hubby’s brother and his children were there, and SIL was there. FIL was out at a dinner. We had a nice dinner and got to talk. When the kids, my niece and nephew are there we don’t get to talk as much as we would like. Missy did well. She was a bit stressed but was fine after a while. It was nice to spend time with family.
On this night I got to talk to my children on the phone. It was awesome to talk to them. My oldest told me all about his birthday. For my oldest birthday, I sent him a card. That had a picture of a convertible on the outside. And it said something to the effect of, “Inside are the keys to your new car!” On the inside it said something to the effect to, “Did you really thing you were going to get real keys and a real car?” I thought it was cute, since my son was now driving age. I also sent him money, so did hubby’s mom, and my parents; in all he racked it up with the money. The middle told us all about his latest sports stuff like goal ball and karate. And my daughter told us all about her band activities, her volleyball games and what was going on. By the time I speak to them at night they are exhausted from school. All three of them have to get up early. Like for example the HS starts school at 7:15am. And my daughter starts middle school at 8am. I personally do not remember going to school that early.
Thursday was about normal for a school day. The night before I didn’t sleep well at all. And when I did get up, felt like “poop”. I felt like I was going to puke, and have other things happen from other ends. I had the cold sweat thing going on too. It didn’t help that I did not sleep well; I did more tossing and turning than sleeping. The night before at my MIL’s house I had one glass of adult beverage, but it might have affected me although it was not strong or a lot. I was about after I got on the train and to school able to pull it together enough to feel somewhat human. I didn’t have my first class, as my professor’s friend passed away and she was going up to be with that family. So I was going to meet a friend, a class mate to work on a project. So I got up where we were going to meet, waited and waited and waited. I was a little miffed but was more worried than anything. I found things to kill my time. On this particular day I took my laptop to school, so it was hard carrying so much with me. My walk to classes went well. Missy had NO accidents. And her work was awesome! By the time I figured out my fellow classmate was not going to show up, it was time to go to my next class.
For the first time ever, I fell asleep in Econ. I really try hard to stay away, as I hope something she is lecturing about soaks in to my brain. But I was so extremely tired I could not help it. I am not advocating for a student to sleep during class, nor do I do this ever, but on this particular day, my body just shut down. During my lunch break, I spend a good amount of time taking Missy out to break. She finally peed but nothing more.
Maybe I am strange, but as a long time guide dog user, I get paranoid whenever my dog does not go break. *shrug* this was the first day of Missy’s reduction in food in the morning.
I have to say Missy’s work was awesome! Only bit of work yet to do, not like my work with ever be done with my puppy is that when I am headed towards the train, she pulls like a freight train. Wow do I have a strong left arm. Don’t mess with me LOL
After school, for dinner we went to my FIL’s house. He picked me up from the train and took me home. Then Missy and I walked half way and hubby met us from him, walking from his work. We had a delicious dinner to pot pies and salad. My BIL brought deserts. After dinner, we all sat around talking and working out on how to solve nail puzzles. Yes nail puzzles. They are big nails bent into strange shapes. And they are two nails, and you must try to get them apart, by twisting, or moving them this way or that way. Hubby loves games like this. My brain started to shut down around 8pm. So we came home shortly afterwards. I broke the pup and went to bed. We were in bed at 10pm!
Friday was a non-school day but still was busy. The first order of business, Missy had a vet appointment. Not because anything was wrong, but just to get her established. When I left the school, Missy weighed 68 pounds, with the not very accurate weighing method. But at my vets she was 70 pounds. I don’t think she gained any, but this had to be her real weight. Otherwise she has a clean bill of health. And everyone thought she was extremely cute. Really she did a great job in the vets. Yes there were a lot of smells and places she sniffed, but she didn’t do as much sniffing as I thought she would have. There were other dogs in their who were making a lot of noise. But she was just very calm. Way more calm than my Emma girl. The vet took a lot of time checking her out.
Then we were off to my appointment. On the way we stopped at my MIL house to a quick potty break. We arrived at the appointment early and was taken back to the little room early. But it was another 30 minutes until the doctor came in. Again everyone in the office thought Missy was beautiful and cute. She did well. I saw the doctor and had a hearing test. I was told that I had a significant hearing loss from the previous hearing tests. He recommends that I get new aids. I knew this that again my hearing has gotten worse, but it was something I didn’t want to acknowledge. They didn’t tell me how much in numbers, as I have the report of the hearing test though. Honestly I am not concerned with knowing those numbers, as I know it’s gotten worse and worse. And frankly it scares me. I could so go into how I am not cool with this, don’t like it, am angry about it, don’t understand it, want it to go away, would like to hide from it, want new ears…..Shall I go on? I’ll leave it at that.
After my appointment with the ENT, we headed to Target for a few items. I have been getting calluses on my left hand from holding on to the harness handle, so it was recommended that I use a bike glove. I also got a laptop sleeve so that when I need to take my laptop into school I can just put into my backpack. I also got Missy a tug toy. I know, I know, I know what the guide dog schools say, for all you guide dog users out there, who say I am going to mess up my pup. I don’t think I will, and playing with a tug toy is a great way for my pup to get out of a lot of energy. I never let her win, when I am done and we need to stop, I say “enough”. She, my Missy is one very very strong pup. For all those who have no clue what I am talking about, guide dog schools say, at least the three I have been to, say that if I play tug with my pup, it will lead to other bad behaviors. Like I said I am the alpha dog, I win in the tug games. And it’s in only short periods of time. Oh and I also got batteries at Target.
Once we were done at Target, which didn’t take us long. We went to pick up my hubby. He had ordered groceries from Acme online. So we picked him up, went and got the groceries and took them home. If you order groceries online they will bring them out to your car. Hubby was there to carry all of them in. We quickly put up the cold items, and then had a quick lunch. Sadly then hubby had to go back to work.
My afternoon was spent looking up my spring semester courses. Why did this simple task take me so long? Because my major university’s website is not completely accessible and difficult to navigate. I found two of the courses I needed, actually more. But I need the code for the classes I want to sign up for, and getting that code is not the easiest of tasks. I have to have my academic advisor help me register for classes because again the website is not the easiest to use for a blind student.
By the time I got two class codes, it was time for hubby to be home. Now if hubby walks home at 5:30pm or later, it is almost dark. I seriously hate this part of winter, how early it gets dark. Hubby and I made a delicious dinner of spaghetti and salad. Now we are working on our “to do” lists. Hubby’s specifically as our convention stuff tasks.
Overall it was a busy week, with good and bad. During meal times, hubby and I will read or listen to a movie, book or TV series. Currently we are reading 90 minutes in heaven. It’s very interesting. It’s making me think about God and my relationship with him. If you haven’t read the book, you should do so.
Well I am closing this for now, as both hubby and I are falling asleep in front of our computers. Perhaps I will sleep latish tomorrow.
Until next time….
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