Day 13 of 40 Let me sleep on it

While I was being slightly nauseous and very sleepy at the second brain dissection practicum, Samantha was stripping wallpaper in the living room of the new house this afternoon. She gave me an update by phone and as Michael predicted there’s a lot to be done. We filled up 10 big plastic bags already.

The new house has a bit larger open plan kitchen than this house. Big enough for the dinner table and all the household devices next to the unit. Not big enough for an island unit but then I’ve got something left to wish for when I’ll move again. Next to removing the wallpaper there’s a double door and glass panel to be removed.

It is about time now to call my brother to help with removing the doors and to plan a date with the guy who’ll help with plastering the walls. But, I’ve got an exam to take coming Friday which keeps my mind rather occupied so I’ll postpone that a little. If I keep feeling so sleepy then there’s no chance of studying properly for the exam. And if I keep worrying about that I’ll even sleep less than I do now. There it is, the beginning of a vicious circle.

Day 12 of 40 Luna-tic

It is likely too much to bear for her, seeing her environment changing from a nice looking garden into a steppe like empty space with a mangrove in the middle. The mangrove is resulting from filling up the crater with branches and even whole plants with their roots. Or she has just a free spirit. Anyway, she was rattling her fences for long now and eventually succeeded to escape. I didn’t realize that the first time, because when I was in my neighbor’s backyard last week, collecting some material for the crater, he asked me if the rabbit had escaped. He pointed at some rabbit droppings in the grass. I said no, because I had just seen her in her hutch a second before I went there.  That following night I heard a lot of noise in the backyard and when I checked where that came from I couldn’t see her in her fenced space at first, but when I looked away I saw her. She was sitting there on the path. I yelled to my daughter to help me, she went just upstairs to go to bed. While she came downstairs I ran through the front door to go to the back garden, the idea was that we could close her in that way. Hm. When I entered the garden door my daughter was standing there, asking me what was wrong because the rabbit was in her hutch. Both rabbits were actually but only Luna is a troublemaker. I thought what the heck, am I seeing things? Is stress playing tricks with my mind?

But the morning after my daughter came to my bed saying that I had not imagined it, she escaped again. A relief. And she did catch the rabbit already. Shame. No, just kidding, but sometimes… Today we had another rabbit hunt. We were late out of bed because of the party last night and were having breakfast when my other daughter pointed to the backyard saying that the rabbit was out again. I couldn’t believe it, I tie-ripped the fence after the previous escape and eventually shut the doors of her hutch so she couldn’t go out of that at all. Only, I had overlooked a hole in the netting of the hutch. My son was the first to get dressed properly for the hunt and learned from another neighbor that the rabbit was hopping on the parking lot next to a couple of houses for hours. Now she was in my neighbor’s backyard again and he said he didn’t mind. I did because the last thing I was longing for was trying to catch the crazy rabbit, so I asked him if he liked rabbit for dinner and that he could have her. That probably scared her off, so in the end she returned rapidly to her hutch again. 

Day 11 of 40 Celebration Time

My youngest girl has had her 18th birthday today. So, only one time with the van full of stuff to the new house and then celebration time. That’s how it is supposed to be and that’s why (amongst other reasons) I took one and a half month to move. We had a great day today!

Day 10 of 40 Grey

I am not sure yet what colors to paint the walls of the new house with. A fashionable color is in a brownish shade of grey. It is a color that easily can be combined with other, brighter and more cheerful colors. But for now it is more important to prepare the walls to be painted eventually.

Today I had the first practicum of the brain dissecting lab. We were expected to be there at 1:15 sharp. That is because the room where this kind of anatomy classes take place is in a part of the hospital building that is not accessible without a pass. The neuroanatomy professor picked us up and when you would be too late there was no easy way to get there. I was a little anxious about this part of the course. I mean, we would be confronted with a human brain. When we arrived at the location we were divided over 4 tables. For each table was a brain and a student assistant who would dissect it for us. Each group consisted of 6 students. But first we had to scrub our hands carefully, to prevent the brain being infected by stuff we had on our hands like from our bread, they explained. After that we were given a green operation coat and gloves. From there we could peek into the room where all the metal tables were laid with scalpels and other instruments. The room was filled with the smell of formalin. After an introduction speech from the professor the student assistant introduced himself to us. We were lucky to have the only male assistant, and he was rather good looking too. Another assistant first brought the half skulls and prepared membranes. So far it was not so freaky as I feared. Then the brains were brought in. Neatly prepared and therefore not scary either. I began to relax because it was really interesting. At one point the assistant was removing some veins and when he had to dig deeper it was visibly not easy to do. Me with my big mouth asked him if it would be handy if one of us gave him a hand. He handed me the tweezers and there I was holding up (if I remembered it well) the optic nerve. I felt like I was participating in Grey’s Anatomy, and I said so. I also added that he was like Mc Dreamy. Then he asked if I could hold up the particular piece with my index finger, so he could use the tweezers. At that time I was completely in my role as a nurse so I did it until I felt cramp in my leg because of the unnatural position I had, then another student took it over from me. We’ve had a very interesting couple of hours there and it will be continued Monday and Tuesday. The only thing is that I still smell the formalin, although I scrubbed my hands when leaving the room and even a couple of times when I got home.

After I came home I picked up the minivan I borrowed for this weekend. Together with my son and youngest daughter we moved the first load tonight. Stuff from the shed and backyard. Slightly covered with dust and dirt I feel like the color grey has lost its appeal a bit. Maybe a little too much grey matter for one day. 

Day 9 of 40 I’ve got your Number

This is tricky. I know exactly what I want to say tonight, except not in English. It’s about my bedroom. The carpet of my bedroom to be specific. And about a guy. There’s the problem. The guy is a bloke who I’ve only met twice. He did this thing for me. With the carpet. That’s what made me confused because at first I thought of him as a carpenter. Carpet, carpenter. No so strange, is it? But then I realized that carpenters don’t work with carpets, in general they work with wood. I need one of those too by the way, someone who works with wood. To build me a stair to the attic in the new house. But that’s another story which has an open end at the moment. Not the attic, that has a shutter of course. With a foldable ladder. And that’s about the only thing I don’t like about the new house. I am not a ladder type.

I remember it now. The guy I am talking about is what you’d call a furnisher. Anyway a couple of years ago I bought this black fluffy carpet for my bedroom. I still love it. I think that is the best part of the bedroom, next to the bed that is. The guy worked for the company where I bought it. He did a great job, neatly and quick. The way my father used to work. My father used to be a furnisher too. And an electrician, a plumber, a builder, there were many other things in and around a house you could call him for. Back to my carpet. This was carpet which has to be laid without glue. The old fashioned way. Therefore it is removable. You’d need special tools to remove it though. That’s why I need this guy again. To remove it here and replace it in my new bedroom. Great that I still got his number. Even better that he did not switched from telecom company and got his self a new number. I’ve called him today and we fixed a date. Saturday September 29 that is. Another thing ticked off my to do list. 

Day 8 of 40 Six options

Today I’ve spent a couple of hours informing several companies and organizations which need to know my new address (so they can still sent me their bills). I informed most of them by making a phone call, others by sending an e-mail and a few (very modern ones) helped me via their digital front office.  The latter seems the most convenient, like for example the one of my hometown. When you cannot find what you are looking for, there’s someone to help you in a chat session. The digital front office of my bank seemed a little less cooperative because it pointed out that I should first inform the Chamber of Commerce. However, with opening another tab of my internet browser that turned out easy as well.

From the approximately fifteen phone calls I’ve made, there was only one organization that had their phone answered by a living human being instead of an automatic responding system. I can see the advantages of such systems, really. Imagine being an operator and having to say again and again the same thing to people who ask again and again the same kind of questions. But what I don’t like at all is when I have to pay for calling their number only to hear after an endless list of options that the waiting time is more than say 10 minutes, but that all the information is also on their website. As if I didn’t look up their website already. Or worse, when it’s my internet provider that I call because I have no connection to the internet. Anyhow, they are doing the best they can. That’s why 9 out of 10 operating systems inform you that for the purpose of investigating their customer’s satisfaction by interviewing you after you finished where you called for. Press 1 when you want to participate, and press 2 when you don’t want to participate. I’ve pressed a lot of 2’s today.

Most systems give you 6 options divided in either their products or services. Option 0 is often when you decide that none of the options says what you were looking for and that you need a human to help you further.

It kind of resembles the variety of websites we have here that try to help you out when you don’t know what party to vote for. There were elections today here in Holland. The (internet) programs guide you through several questions about important political issues. For example about euthanasia, soft drugs legalization, mortgage interest (deductable or not), etc. In the end the program gives you some graph or list with parties that represent the same kind of ideas. It would be more reliable if all the websites come up with the same advice for you, but that could also depend on your own mood when answering the questions. So, when you want to vote eventually and still don’t know which party to vote for, which is not unlikely when you think about the election campaigns, press 0 to talk personally to the political leader… 

Day 7 of 40 Dissecting

The general rule when moving from a rental house is that you remove everything that is not part of the house and repair what is necessary. When you won’t do it, there’s a good chance that the agency does not return your deposit (worth one month rent). But doing that while you still want to be able to find everything between and in the cardboard boxes means, again, careful planning.

Although I am not much of a planner, the idea of what has to be done is in my head. Today I did some little chores, like removing various things in my study. A magnet strip which was glued to the wall (meaning I have to repaint that part now), pictures from the walls and removing the screws. While working there  painstakingly, thus putting the different parts in small plastic bags and stick them on the object they belong to, I was thinking about the dissecting class we’ll have coming Friday. After many hours studying the brain in full colored textbooks it is time to move to the real work. There’s one huge difference of course: a dissected brain cannot be rebuild and my home hopefully can.