Work/ School Balance

So, first off, I got the results from my cancer test, and I don’t have skin cancer! The entire day I found out, I kept thinking I should have listened to my dog. I know, strange thought, but also true. My dog smelled out my pre cancer before it was able to become anything a few years ago. To me, that means I need to listen to her and my dermatologist agreed (dogs are pretty smart). Well, she was right. Miss Scarlett never sniffed at my back, she never reacted to something strange. She never smelled cancer. When the doctor tells you maybe, you listen, but my in-home expert has been right 100% of the time. Maybe next time I have a cancer scare (I mean these days everyone is getting them at some point), I will listen to Scarlett.

I also had the pleasure of Miss Scarlett bleeding all over my floor. I was getting ready for work and found a puddle-like area on her nail scratchboard and dots of blood all over my floors. She saw the neighbor’s dog out I think and went ballistic, trying to get outside and get to it. I think she did something to her nail(s) during this process. She was still running around everywhere, acting normal, spreading more and more blood. She then jumped up on my bed and got blood on my nice new electric blanket. I was able to kind of look at her paws, because she didn’t want me to touch them. I knew it was a front paw from looking, but that was the extent of it. Her little front paws were shaking some also. I called the vet and made an appointment to get her in. IF I thought this was an emergency, I would have gotten her in right away, but it wasn’t. I think it kept bleeding because she kept walking on it, and it wouldn’t clot. So, when she saw the vet, they couldn’t figure out what she’d done. They saw no injuries, no scabs, and no tender areas. Nothing. She is a mystery.

On to the exciting news. I have baby snails! I helped a clutch of snails hatch and put them in my large tank with a few fish, moved the mama snail into the large tank (the daddy snail was getting a little too rowdy), and moved a few fish from my smaller tank to the larger one. I then found out they shouldn’t be in such a large tank, so my next clutch was put into my smaller tank with dad and my remaining fish in that tank. Overall, I’ve had 3 clutches hatch and have at least 10 snail babies in the large tank and 20 in the smaller tank. There’s more than that, but that’s all I’ve been able to count on the tank walls.

Since I’ve finished school, I still feel like I’m just as busy as when I was in it. The thing is, my busyness comes from my tanks, college applications, job search, house maintenance, and work. I still haven’t had much writing time. I know, I know, I need to just sit down and do it. It feels like I try and add one thing to my to-do list and five more things happen or appear. I’m teaching a class at work so I’ve been working 6 days a week for 4 weeks, I’m seeing a chiropractor for my jaw, working 9-10 hours a day at work 5 days a week (plus my 3 hours I’m working on Saturday), weekly maintenance on my tanks, my dog and her neediness, trying to eat healthy so that takes time, and I’m looking for a job in the English field. I’m trying to send out an application a week, but unfortunately there aren’t many jobs out there with the income I need for entry level work. I might as well stay where I am until something comes along. It’s hard. And I’m waiting to hear back on my college application to the one school I applied to.

So, there are three things that I want to add to my daily to-do list, and I’m afraid I won’t have the time to stick them in. They are exercise, writing, and reading a bible verse every day. Those seem like simple things, but when you have someone barking at you because you’re moving too slow to open the door for them to go out and stand in the wind, it gets a little hard. I guess it’s the joys of dog ownership. I love Scarlett to death and I wouldn’t trade her for anything, but sometimes her demands, needs, and expensive issues kind of get tiresome.

I’ll figure it all out. I’m finally getting into a routine at my new house, but I’m still getting used to it. Everything will fall into place eventually.