Well, I ran a mile a couple of days ago with David just to see how my lungs would fare. I made it, but barely. My chest still felt tight and I was out of breath. I haven't exercised in a half year, so that might be expected. I had a one week check with the doctor who put me on Nexium. He said that my breathing would keep improving as long as I'm on the medicine. He also said to wait on the exercise for a while. It makes sense. He said that my lungs have been seared by acid for over six months, so it might take a little longer than a week or two for my lungs to fully recover. Drat. I hate to wait, but under the circumstances I'll do it. I'll just continue to gain weight in the meantime, which makes David happy, so I guess it's not a complete tragedy.

I'm really bummed that I can't be in exercise classes this semester. The truth of the matter is that I hate to run. I've tried to find comfort in its simplicity (a.k.a LOW COST), but I can't. Running is really boring, and all I have to concentrate on while I run is the fact that my lungs feel like they are constricted with barbed wire and my legs feel like they are made out of cement. When I am in exercise class, there is music, lots of other people, and its lots of fun.

In an unrelated note, I'm excited because David and I have been invited to a party for young married couples. One from the Schafer clan is having a "dessert soiree." It will be nice to see Mary again because the last time I spoke with her was about three minutes before I walked down the aisle. The only problem is that there will be one couple there who I cannot stand. These people might as well be my arch enemies. David doesn't even like them, so I don't even have him reminding me that I need to be a good Christian. Oh, and Mary's house isn't that big, so I can't just avoid them. I'm also assuming that there will be no booze, so I can't just drink them invisible either. But I will go to this party, I'll be charming, and I'll be on my best behavior. I mean, I really like the rest of the people who are coming to the party. I'll just talk to them. Perhaps I'll even bury the hatchet with my adversaries. After all, they can't be that bad, and no one likes to have arch enemies. Right?

In another unrelated note, welcome to the world John Elias Russell. He was born on Labor Day, which made him a little over a month early. Katie, John, and the baby are doing fine. I was born over a month early, too, so I already have something in common with the little guy. I know from experience that John Elias will have premie power for the rest of his life.

I'm tired and I don't really have many pressing thoughts at the moment.

Last night I had dinner with Anne, Peter, Dan, and Laura. We had chili and cornbread muffins, and everything was fantastic. Afterward, we had great conversation, and Dan told some really great stories. David wasn't able to come to dinner because he had to work at Ivy Tech.

I was also tired but extremely happy yesterday because it was my third straight day without any lung spasms. Yes, lung spasms. Evidently this is a little known health problem associated with acid reflux. Most people just get heartburn, but I get lung spasms. The acid flows up my esophagus and spills out in my lung wall. This makes my lungs go crazy. All of this started in late January-early February. I went to Arnett Clinic several times where they told me my chest pain was just stress. That is the most irritating and insulting answer a doctor can give. I have no doubt that my condition was brought on by stress, but that doesn't mean that my pain isn't real, and it certainly doesn't mean that there is nothing they can do about it. Since February, my spasms have been getting progressively worse. I would have them every day. Then, after we returned from Europe, I started having spasms continuously. All day, every day. I finally went to PUSH because I was having trouble breathing, and I decided that the spasms might be related to my asthma. After two unsuccessful asthma medications, my doctor put me on Nexium, an acid reflux medicine. And there you have it. My spasms reduced almost immediately. Now I'm spasm free. I still have a little trouble breathing, but I have no doubt that it will improve in time. I really feel like I've gained a part of my life back. I'm even going to start exercising again as soon as my breathing clears up completely.

So, I'm thankful for Nexium. I'll even be able to have caffeine again soon. See, caffeine makes acid reflux worse, and that in turn made my spasms worse. Maybe then I'll be able to wake up.

Some things never change. I was reading Erasmus' The Praise of Folly yesterday and today and I came across a great paragraph that essentially sums up the way I feel about some of my peers here at school. Erasmus was a 16th century humanist and theologian from Rotterdam. He was a Catholic who rightly criticized the church for some of its corruption around and during the reformation. The paragraph goes like this:

"The rhetoricians of our times, who think themselves in a manner[of] gods... believe they have done a mighty act if in their Latin orations they can but shuffle in some ends of Greek like mosaic work, though altogether by head and shoulders and less to the purpose. And if they want hard words, they run over some worm-eaten manuscript and pick out half a dozen of the most old and obsolete to confound their reader, believing, no doubt, that they [who] understand their meaning will like it the better, and they [who] do not will admire it the more by how much the less they understand it."

Isn't it great? Don't get me wrong. I like graduate school. I like it for the simple facts that I like to read and I like to learn. What I don't like is the way one thinks they have to act in order to be accepted into the academic community. Sometimes it's a little too fake. Actually, I even like big words, but I don't abuse them. I'll only use an uncommon or fancy word when think that word is the best word to express my meaning and emphasis.

I know I promised I would give a top ten list, and that will come within a week. It takes time to think of one's favorite and least favorite things. Of course, this list will exclude people. Otherwise, both lists would probably include nothing but people. Ha ha. Oh, and I am making a new promise to not rant about graduate school for a while. I know I've got it good, and I don't want to seem ungrateful. I just couldn't resist posting that quote today.

Ok, so this is my second stab at the blog thing. I've remembered my sign in name. I've remembered my password. So, now I can start letting people know my thoughts on everything. Prepare to be enlightened. First, I have to say that I don't like my blog background. It's annoying. I like only two blog backgrounds out of the all the choices they give. The only problem is that my two friends, Anne and Laura, have the two backgrounds that I like. I don't want to be a copy cat, so I'm stuck with the annoying dots.

Well, if you don't know me, I'm not sure why you're reading my blog. However, I'll give a little background information just in case. I'm 24 and I just got married this May. Four days after the wedding my husband, David, and I took a two month honeymoon to Italy and Greece. It was a fantastic trip and was had some great experiences. Now that we're home we are flat broke, and it's three weeks until we get paid. We won't have to go to soup kitchens, but we will have to tighten the belt. I think the trip was worth it though.

Ok, so I mentioned that we get paid, so you might be wondering where it is that we work. Well, David and I have two jobs each, but they are essentially the same jobs. We are both TA's in the Classics department at Purdue. I teach Latin and David teaches Greek. We are also writing lab tutors at Ivy Tech. Because we are TA's, that also means that we are full-time graduate students at Purdue. We are both in the snooty English department where everyone thinks they are God's gift to erudite scholarship. They are not. Neither are we, but the difference is that we have never claimed to be. Oh, that and we aren't jerkfaces about every little thing. I am in the Comparative Literature field and my husband is in English Linguistics. There are some good people in both departments, but they seem to be the exception to the jerkface rule.

David and I live next door to our Good friends Anne and Peter Neulieb. Anne is the one who encouraged me to get this blog.

So there's my life right now. It's pretty good and I happen to like it a lot. I like to tell stories and also like to rant. That is probably what this blog will be mostly comprised of. Yeah, I did just end a sentence in a preposition. I think for my next post I will give a top ten best and worst things I like in the whole world.