piecing it back together

I'm sad to report that 2007 has had a bit of a rocky start and I'm not currently much of a fan.

I had a great New Year's staying up all night with my hubby, Wade, drinking, smoking, playing cards, laughing and talking.

Mid-January we had a nice , our first since moving to Chicago, and got to spend time with friends and family on the coast at Seaside and in the valley in Portland.

I got to see Troy & Amanda, Adam, my uncle Jack & his family, Wiggy Bill, and then we went to the coast with my father in-law, Jerry, his wife, Gretchen, her adult-children, Amanda and Chris, Amanda's husband, Rick, their daughter, Brittany and Chris' son, AJ. This was all in 4 days.

I rented my first car in Portland for the trip to the coast, which was exiciting and very simple. It was the first trip I took since being old enough to rent a car and one of those last birthday milestones, so I charished it.

And am I glad I took the special 4-wheel-drive offer they had at Dollar, because there was more snow in Portland when we landed than there was in Chicago when we took off. And if you've ever driven from Portland to Seaside during the winter, you know that the mountain pass can get pretty slick.

Since our brief trip, I have missed Portland even more, but I've also been so busy at work that it makes it hard to think of anything else. I've been working 12-hour days at least 3 days a week, plus 9-hour days the remaining 1-2 workdays. We just got some new team members and I think they're working out fine.

So far not so bad, so what is Eva bitching about?

Well, I guess it started on a Tuesday night about 5 weeks ago, when I barely caught my finger tip in a bathroom stall door and within 24 hours my nail was completely black and the throbbing pain had brought me close to tears. I don't know about you, but I had a natural birth and it takes a lot of pain to make me cry.

So, because work was so crazy, I doped myself up on ibuprofen and trucked along. By the time Saturday rolled along I couldn't imagine living another day with the pain and I thought that my finger was possibly getting infected, so I took a trip to the ER.

I've never been admitted to an ER before and I've only been in the hospital once (see natural child birth, above). I'm not a fan of needles and doctors or waiting for long periods of time. That being said, it went fairly smoothly. They did exactly what WebMD told me to do myself, but I didn't have the cojones and I got the reassurance of the x-ray too.

I haven't lost the nail, as of yet, but I am 99% sure that I will soon. Okay, on with the sob story. So about 4 weeks ago, I lost my bus/rail pass. I went and got it replaced in the middle of the day because they close at 4pm. Only it was much further away than I had thought. Then a couple of weeks after that, I was out drinking and lost my cell phone and DRIVER'S LICENSE and my bus/rail card again the next day.

I guess I should consider myself lucky because I've never lost my DL before. It is an absolute nightmare, especially if you don't live in the state that issued your previous DL or you birth certificate or your marriage certificate, etc.

I did finally manage to get a hold of my Birth Certificate, my Social Security card, my lease and my marriage certificate to get an Illinois ID Card. You see, I hadn't switched my DL over from Oregon, so had to get an ID card for now, until I can take the driving test.

While we were in Portland, my uncle offered me his car (which very close to the model I learned to drive on), so we are getting a car this summer, but Wade and I both need to get our license first. Oh, and I've NEVER taken a driving test before, so I am sort of nervous and I don't really know how it works.

The silver lining of all these lost object is that now I have finally joined the respectable 21st century people who have camera phones. I've been having a lot of fun taking pictures and uploading directly to my flickr.

So here's to hoping that the rest of 2007 sails a little more smoothly. Now that it is my birthday month, I'm sure things will start to look up...Here's to a year full of regular updates to this here blog.