Ask me anything!
I’ll answer all your questions on Saturday.

While I was home sick, I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day anyway! I reveled in the fact that my name is Irish (my name is Caitlin, if you didn’t know) and I pretended that I was Irish. In reality, I don’t know what I am so I can pretend whatever I want. I’m adopted, if you weren’t aware of that either. My adoptive parents have a lot of Irish in them, though, so I have every right to celebrate.

I made a pretty St. Patrick’s Day boutonniere, too. Don’t you love it? You can make one yourself here.

So, you learned a lot about me in this post, huh? Why don’t you ask me some more questions. That’s right. I’m doing the whole “ask me whatever you want” deal. So, lets play “Ask Caity!” I’ll answer all your questions on Saturday. Well, all those that I deem appropriate, but I think that’s a given.

You want to know what it is now, don’t you? Well, my mom reads my blog so you will just have to wait! You can say Happy Birthday to my Mom, though! If she can figure out how to read the comments again, she’ll probably appreciate it. So far, she’s figured out how to click “CAITLIN’S BLOG” on the tab I put in her bookmarks browser. I think it’s adorable.

My mom told me once that she didn’t actually read what I said, but she loved to look at all the pictures that I wrote and it gave her a general idea of what I wrote. I couldn’t believe my mother was one of THOSE blog visitors – one that clicked out that X unless she saw pictures. Are you one of those blog readers? Well, I guess I’ll never know if you are because you won’t still be here.

I decided there are types of blog readers. This is my list so far.

• Cling to your every word. These blog readers read everything you say no matter what. If they went away on vacation, they’ll probably still read the 7 entries from when you were away and comment on them all. They probably leave entire paragraphs, too, commenting on everything you said. They could probably answer trivia about you and score higher than your best friend.
• Casual skimmer. These blog readers tend to read bits and pieces of the blog entry. Usually they’ll read the first sentence of each paragraph and read bits and pieces here and there. If something tickles their fancy or there is something that particularly interests them, they’ll probably go back and keep reading. They leave comments frequently too because they usually have something to say… being they have a general gist or a pretty good gist of what they’ve read.
• The first and last sentence! These blog readers tend to read the first and last sentence. If there is a list, maybe they’ll read that. They’ll leave comments but they’re usually one liners and sometimes they’ll be absolutely irrelevant to what the post is about showing that they had not read more than two words.
• No thanks. It’s not pretty. If there’s no pictures or fancy images, these blog readers are gone in 10 seconds. Their attention spans are short and they usually only comment on image posts and only about the images. The post is usually about the images, though, so they usually get away with it.

So, do you have any to add? Well, besides the mean commenters, of course, but we won’t add them.

“What to you want me to do with this?” I asked. My hair was already tied up.

He kept pouting. I realized he wanted me to tie up his hair. I laughed as he knelt down in front of me and I giggled as I tied up his hair.

He even let me take a picture!

His hair is so long now and it gets in the way when he does things like do the dishes.

Do you prefer long hair or short hair in a partner?

I do have reasons, though, aside from laziness. My grandfather has been in the hospital and is not doing well. He has an infection in his blood and I have been quite worried about him. I have been on and off the phone with my mother who has been in contact with the North Carolina crew who have kept us all posted on his situation. He is doing a bit better now that they know what is wrong.

I also had my hives come back. They are worse than ever. This time they were all over my body, even my neck and face. I felt like a hideous monster. I ended up finally caving to the idea that they are not stress related and going to see an allergist yesterday. Something is up with this. They’re not there all the time and something must be causing it. I had to figure out what. I didn’t want to have hives all over my body if there was something I could do to stop them.

The allergist told me that it was not something that I was doing and it was not an allergic reaction on the outside of any type given the circumstances. It was definitely something on the inside – something with my immune system having to do with my system. Not what I wanted to hear… that I’m somehow sick and have some sort of disease maybe? He told me I had to get bloodwork and we would go from there but not to worry too much because he sees it a lot and it could be nothing serous. (To me, all I heard was “It could be something serious.”)

This morning, a pattern finally dawned on me as far as my hives are concerned. I am not keeping my hopes up but I am definitely going to talk to my doctor about it. I had my monthly visitor and realized the hives appear every time alongside of it. Oh… there’s a thing for that and I fit the bill. Could it be? Could I have finally figured it out? I’m going to get my bloodwork done but I’m also going to call my doctor and see what he thinks about my thoughts. I just want to stamp a diagnosis on this damn thing so I can finally feel better and maybe start treating it.

I’m feeling better today but my grandfather was in the hospital today. He is home now but he gave everyone quite a scare and is still very weak and not doing well. They ran a bunch of tests and such. I hope he keep feeling better. I hate being so far away. Most of my mom’s side of the family, including my grandfather, live in North Carolina.

I found a really neat website that monitors mouse movements while you’re on the computer. This is what my movements look like when I browse the internet for 2 hours. I found it very interesting. What does yours look like? You can download the neat little program at IOGraphica.com. That’s my little find of the day.

I asked Josh to write the recipe down exactly as he did it. Some of it made me giggle, like his ingredient called “fake chicken” which of course us vegans of course would call something like textured soy protein or a meat substitute. Anyway, I am going to write the recipe exactly as Josh did! If you try it, let us know if you like it!

SQUASH AND MUSHROOM THINGIE

Ingredients:
1 green squash (zucchini)
1 yellow squash
half onion
punnet mushrooms (chopped)
half cup soymilk
fake chicken
cup chopped stringbeans
2 tsp margarine
vegetable stock cube

Directions:
Heat large saucepan, melt margarine into saucepan, add mushrooms and 1/4 cup soymilk. Whilst mushrooms are cooking, cube squash, chicken. Add all at once to saucepan. Dice beans, add to saucepan with remainder of soymilk, add veg cube. Dice onion, add to saucepan, cover, simmer for 25-30 min over low heat.

The Rules:
1. Open your 1st Photo folder.
2. Scroll to the 10th photo.
3. Post the photo and the story behind it.
4. Tag 5 or more people.

This is a food court in a local mall. I think it’s hysterical because the food court is a giant Zeppelin. At the time, I was still playing World of Warcraft and all you WoW nerds will understand why I thought this was awesome and deserving of a photo. For the rest of you, just know that one of the main ways that your character travels in the game is via a huge zeppelin. I only wish I could’ve gotten further away because it really is a HUGE ZEPPELIN! (You know, a big airship!) Now, the only thing I need to figure out is why our food court needs to fly away…

I tag Alexandra, Nicola, Jonna, Ashleigh, and Angela.

She asked in the entry if anyone would like a postcard. I commented and said that I would love a postcard if she wanted to send me one! Today, a postcard came in the mail from France! It was a handmade postcard, hand stamped and made especially for me and I love it!

The quote on the front around the stamps says, “The three essentials of happiness are something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for…”

The quote is special to her and she told me why in the message on the back. It was so lovely and it means so much that she sent me such a lovely post card! I love getting gifts from my blog friends in the mail because it makes you realize how special the friends you have made really are.

Moko also liked the post card but after a while she tried to lick and bite it. I think she started to get bored after she read it all. Silly cat. :P

Thanks Alexandra!

So I decided that I’d share with you what you might find in my purse. Here is what I am carrying around with my on a daily basis. Well, minus my camera because that’s usually in there too. Obviously it was in my hands at the time of the photo.

From left to right, top to bottom:
my purse, my inhalers, benadryl, school medical kit (gloves and gause with instructions), a book, wallet, checkbook, daily planner, moleskine journals, breathspray, chapstick, a crayon from my friend for St. Patrick’s Day (haha), my phone, my sparkly hair clips, nail file, my crazy amounts of pens and pencils that I don’t need but insist on carrying with me at all times, and my keys

So… what’s in your bag?