If you want something done right...

just do it yourself.

This is an important life lesson. I was painfully reminded of this again today. And now, I have twin bruises on my arms as proof that trusting someone else to do a job for you is a bad.plan.

You see, today I had to have blood drawn (one of the many fabulous perks of being pregnant). Having blood drawn is, for me, a smallish problem. My little arm veins do not like being stabbed. They collapse rather quickly after being stabbed, which inevitably results in me being stabbed multiple times. I try to explain this fact to the little blood-draw-y people, but they usually don't listen to me.

I explained to "Brandon the Blood Guy" that attempting to draw 3 vials of blood from my right arm would be a mistake. I explained that it would not work and I would end up being stabbed multiple times and that this was a sure-fire way to make me Cranky and would he please just listen to me and use my left arm to start with? He tried to argue...

"The veins in your right arm are more prominent" he said.
"That's all part of their evil plot" I said, "I promise it won't work."
"Well, I suppose we can try your left arm" Brandon Blood-Guy replied
"Super" I said.

And we did. And he drew 2 vials of blood. And he stopped. He de-needled me. My arm immediately developed a large blood red bump (does this everytime...I tried to warn him...) I wondered what on earth he was doing since I can read and the order specifically said 3 vials. He paused. He read the order again. He said. "I'll be right back." He returned. Sheepish. "We need to do that again" he said.

"I know." I replied with a deep sigh. "I suppose it won't work to poke the same place again?"

He looks, he sees the large red/purple bump bruisy thing that has already developed on my arm. "No, that won't work..." He begins to inspect both arms, front and back, wrists, hands etc...looking for a suitable place to stab. He finally settles on one. In my right arm. "It probably won't work" I say.

"Well, let's give it a try" Brandon the Blood Guy says. And he stabs me. And it worked. For about 2 seconds. Then it collapsed. As I said it would. And he said "That will have to be enough; I'm not poking you again."

I was grateful. And bruised. And also annoyed. For one, brief, shining moment, it seemed that I would get of out the lab with only 1 stab wound and 1 large bruise. Alas, it was not to be. And now I am looking into Blood Drawing Person School because really, this cannot possibly be a difficult job and, clearly, the people currently doing this job are incompetent. So, from now on, I'm just doing it myself.

Insomnia...

Well, it is now after midnight and I am not asleep. This is an astonishing fact because I am most decidedly not a night person. I really could (and usually do) go to bed before 10:00 every single day. However, today, I broke my cardinal rule of sleeping: Thou Shalt Only Sleep at Night. You see, I have a very...tempermental sleep schedule and, as I explained to Morgan last week, only get "one shot" at sleeping in any given day. If I nap that's my one chance and I'll be up all night. Despite being quite aware of this fact, I broke my rule and laid down today after work. I had a splitting headache and thought if I could just lay down for a little while I'd feel better. Tragically, a "little while" turned into 2 hours and now I am awake. Typing away. At 12:15 AM. I'm sure you are thrilled with my insomnia; you get to read rather detailed descriptions of my circadian rhythms and really, who doesn't want to read that?  I'm doing you a favor here. Be grateful. :-)
I suppose in some ways, my inability to sleep tonight is a good thing. I managed to baste an entire quilt, so now it is ready to finish tomorrow (I'd start the quilting tonight, but I worry that the noise of the sewing machine would wake Isaac; we live in a shoebox and sound carries unbelievably well....). After I finish these musings, I'll move on to grading some work for my adjunct teaching classes and just be oh-so-productive. Who knows? Maybe I'll adopt an entirely nocturnal schedule from now on. I'll be like a vampire; work all night, sleep all day. I hear vampires are very popular these days...
Speaking of vampires: whilst at the airport last week, waiting to fly home from Salt Lake, I saw a young man wearing a shirt that said, "And then Buffy staked Edward. The end". I laughed right out loud and many people turned to look at me. At which point I also started looking around, as if trying to find the source of the laughter. I don't think I fooled anyone, but it made me feel better.
Hmm...turns out I don't really have much to say at 12:25 in the morning. I suppose I'll let you get back to whatever you were doing (which I am sure was much more productive than reading this post) and I'll move on to that grading. Heaven knows it won't grade itself.
Happy Wednesday!

In Which I Brag (Just a Little)

A few years ago, Isaac and I decided that we were going to work really hard to
1. Get out of debt (including student loans) and
2. Stay out of debt.

We paid off our car and credit card balances and, for the last couple of years, we've been able to live completely without consumer debt, which (for us)  is a pretty big accomplishment (that's not the bragging part). We've just gotten in the habit of saving up for the things we want/need and it's a great system. We're still working on the student loan situation, but that's going to take more than just a couple years and, in the meantime, we needed to make sure we were on track to accomplish #2 (Stay out of debt). Staying debt-free meant having a fully funded emergency fund and let me tell you, saving 4-6 months of living expenses is hard.  It seems like every time we'd get close to getting it "fully funded" something would come up and the little emergency fund would take a hit. Still, we always kept trying and...

WE'VE FINALLY DONE IT!

Yes, folks, that is correct, we have a real-life, honest-to-goodness emergency fund that will enable us to live, even without any income, for 4-6 months!  Picture me doing the happy dance...Dance, Erin, Dance!

If we can do it, you can too! And, imagine how fun it will be to do your very own Happy Dance!