Why I Got A Nose Ring

My husband thought it would look cute. Not your typical reason to get a nose ring, huh? Seriously, one day my innovative husband and I just had a dialogue that went something like this:

"Hey, you should get a nose ring!" 

"Really?" 

"Yeah, nose rings are really pretty."

"Uh, sure." I thought, "Why not? Why pass up a perfectly good opportunity to get a nose ring?" 

Of course, I did have a few more questions . . . . 

Would getting a nose piercing be culturally acceptable? I had two thoughts as far as culture . . . First, was a nose ring going to be socially acceptable in American mainstream culture, i.e. business attire? Second, what would fellow Christians' thoughts be on the matter? Would such a face decoration be socially awkward at church? I googled nose ring and found a very well researched article on Wikipedia. And I quote, "nose piercing is the second most common varieties of piercing after earlobe piercing." The article included many types of professionals that had nose piercings. Besides, I could always let my nose piercing close up if I wanted too. As to what people at church would think . . . I figured they couldn't be too offended since ladies wore nose rings in the Old Testament.

Would a nose ring look right on me personally? I saw a bunch of different styles of nose piercings on Google images. I figured I would just get a classy one.

Where would I go to get my nose pierced? I asked my friends/family on Facebook if anyone knew of a good place in Clemson to get a nose ring. One friend recommended going to a tattoo shop because they are certified in piercings. I ended up going to Artistic Ink in Pendleton, SC. There we waited in an entry way painted burgundy, in a large black leather couch over a massive gray leather shag carpet. A police show could be heard on the TV above us. I felt slightly on edge, like there was going to be an adrenaline rush. Once we were called on, Jason told me his life stories for over half an hour trying to get me to calm down so he could pierce my nose! Shastya and Anthony were both there with me for the event! With all my fidgeting over a little nose piercing, Jason could hardly believe that I had birthed Shastya! He did a great job piercing my nose so Anthony tipped him for doing so, and for putting up with me! Anthony got me a gleaming diamond/ rhinestone nose stud for my 30th birthday present! I was elated. Anthony continuously tells me how much he enjoys looking at my beautiful nose ring.

The Second Anniversary

After my husband left for the day to go study for his mechanical engineering qualifying exams, I discovered a text on my phone from my step mother-in-law. The text read, "Happy Anniversary, you two!" I thought, "Oh, it must be July 28th," because that is our wedding anniversary. I went about finding a cool picture to post on Facebook to post with congrats to my husband on our 2 years together. When I got on Facebook I saw congrats from my Aunt and my Mom! I remembered that Anthony had turned off his Facebook and Twitter apps on his phone recently so that he could actually get some good studying done. I also figured as late as it was in the day, that somehow, his phone had messed up and not alerted him that it was our anniversary. His calendar on his phone in the past had alerted him to such anniversaries as 1 month, or 6 months!

I decided to make spaghetti and meatballs for something kind of celebratory for our second year anniversary dinner. Growing up, my Mom always made the best spaghetti and meatballs! She made hearty, chunky, huge meatballs. Spaghetti and meatballs was one of those meals us kids would always request for birthdays. Our other two favorite requests were stromboli and lasagna. I searched online for a meatball recipe to get a list of ingredients before I headed out to the store. I went with a Betty Crocker recipe thinking perhaps it was the one my Mom used since I know she had a good orange Betty Crocker cookbook that was a staple in our kitchen growing up. The online recipe called for bread crumbs. I thought I had some in the cabinet. The recipe also called for Worcestershire sauce. I thought I could probably substitute soy sauce.

Upon returning from the store and starting supper, I discovered that I did not have bread crumbs. I did have . . . cream of wheat, grits, and oats. I went with the cream of wheat and soy sauce. Just before I started making the meatballs, Anthony came home early from studying! Baby Shastya and I hugged and kissed Daddy, then I told Daddy he should check Facebook, and that I had shared a post about him. When he got online to check, he immediately noticed that it was our anniversary, because Facebook notified him!

I made the spaghetti and meatballs. Dinner turned out delicious, but the meatballs seemed a little too refined and sweet. I'm just going to have to get my Mom's recipe!

Anthony and I are both okay with the fact that we both forgot our anniversary. We both had a great day, and enjoyed each other just like we do all the other days of the year!

A Doozy of a Day

What does a flood, waiting around, curtains coming down, wasps, and tomato soup have in common? For me, they share a memory of a doozy of a day! Bear with me as I attempt to explain . . .

It all started just this past week when Anthony woke up at 2:30 a.m. to what sounded like rain. He walked into the kitchen only to discover that our kitchen was flooding. The "rain" he was hearing was coming out from under our kitchen sink! Anthony quickly surveyed the situation, turned the water off as best he could, and then woke me up! I scurried out of bed to see the commotion. Anthony asked me what I thought we should do. After thinking a second, I replied, "We could open the back door and sweep the water out with the broom." That's precisely what we did. The carpet in our dining area and bedroom was already wet. I dammed up the entrance to the kitchen with bath towels, hand towels, washcloths, a beach towel, baby blankets, and a wool blanket. Once we got the situation under control, i.e. most of the water out the back door, I took some pictures. Anthony tried to stop the water that was leaking under the sink, and was able to curtail it, but not completely. He then placed bowls and a bucket under the sink. He changed them out, and dumped them outside as they became full.

We called our apartment emergency maintenance line, and Anthony explained what was going on. I went back to bed. Anthony waited up an hour, but ended up leaving a note on the door for maintenance that included his phone number, and stated that he was going back to bed. At 8:30 a.m. a man from apartment maintenance came.  He said he had been by our place around 5:30 a.m., had read the note on our door, left, and had just returned. We discussed with him what had happened at our apartment earlier that morning. We had hardly finished our story when apartment maintenance had fixed the leak under the sink, and was about to leave. We were almost incredulous at such a short turn of events, it seemed apartment maintenance did not believe our tale! We asked what was going to be done about all the water in the carpet. Apartment maintenance asked what we wanted to be done. Anthony asked if some fans could be brought in.

Before Anthony left, he turned on the air conditioner unit/dehumidifier to help dry out the apartment. I waited around all day for the fans to arrive instead of going for a walk because I thought I needed to be there. Later, Anthony told me I could have just left because apartment maintenance did not need me to be there to get in. About halfway through the day no progress was being made whatsoever towards our apartment drying out. I called Anthony. I asked if I should switch plans, maybe open the doors and windows to let hot air in. He said sure. I did so, tearing down some of our curtains in our front room on accident in the process. I then nailed our curtain hanger back up into our window frame.

Little did I know that having bright lights on was an invitation to wasps to invade our apartment through our open doors. All at once I perceived three large wasps swirling around our apartment as the overhead fans helped propel them about. I freaked out. I don't like insects. Shastya was laughing at my excitement. I tried shutting off the indoor lights so that the wasps would exit our apartment in search of light outside of it. I got most of the lights out, a wasp out, and one door shut. One door was still open. I shut it, and a wasp flew out from behind it! Ahh! I opened the door back again. There was still a third wasp that had flown into our bedroom. I went looking for it, hoping the second wasp would fly out the front door while I was in the bedroom. Then I beheld the third wasp, buzzing and dangling from the ceiling in our bedroom above the doorway I had just entered. It was hovering as if trying to build a nest, a home, in our home. I had baby Shastya on my shoulder the whole time, with my other hand I grabbed a broom and attempted to joust with the wasp. When it flew at us, Shastya freaked out too, and I ran outside with Shastya still on my shoulder. I texted Daddy, "can you come home." Over an hour later, Daddy rode the bus home. Shastya and I just camped out on a patch of carpet that wasn't wet in our front room until Daddy arrived. When Daddy got home, he found a great wasp in our closet where it had gone attracted by our closet light. He killed the third wasp with the broom! The second wasp must have flown out the front door earlier. It was nowhere to be seen.

Daddy brought home with him a mini dehumidifier from a friend. He also called and asked one of his Clemson PhD advisors if he had a wet vac we could borrow. Anthony asked his advisor because his advisor has a house, unlike a lot of our PhD student friends that have apartments similar to ours. Anthony's advisor generously let us use his wet vac which improved our apartment disaster tremendously! We thanked God for the wet vac.

After Anthony used the wet vac in our apartment, I made grilled cheese and tomato soup for supper while Anthony returned the wet vac to his advisor. Around 8:30 p.m., as we began enjoying our supper, Shastya spilled a bowl of tomato soup all over Mommy(me), baby, the floor and the wall. We didn't laugh or get mad, we just looked at Shastya. Daddy wiped us off a bit before Mommy went for a shower, and baby went for a bath. Daddy cleaned all the tomato soup stains out of the carpet. We could have snapped a picture with the tomato soup all over us, but I just thought that was a little too much. What would we have done, froze and then said "cheese?"

Where had the day gone? Let's see, Mommy washed and dried four loads of towels and blankets somewhere in there. I wonder if apartment maintenance would have believed our flood story if he had seen our pictures? How could we blame him for not fully comprehending our story? We had done such a good job getting rid of the water. Who would have known that there had been a flood? The kitchen floor looked mopped. All the towels had been drying unseen behind the closed back door on the back porch. Our day was over. It was time to get some sleep before meeting our friends the next morning at 3 a.m. for a hike to see a sunrise from a fire tower in Rabun Bald, Georgia.

The Easter Weekend Flood

When we returned from visiting family over Easter weekend, we discovered our apartment had flooded. I started freaking out and said that we could fall through the floor. Anthony said that everything was under control and that our apartment management had done an excellent job taking care of the situation. Anthony has such a way of setting me at ease.

Untimely Circumstances at the SC Botanical Gardens

Shastya and I went on a trip to the SC Botanical Gardens. I didn't take my tablet with me, and that is what I usually use to take pictures with. I missed the opportunity to capture the essence of Spring on camera. I was "kicking myself" after I realized I hadn't brought it. The flowers and scenery were so Spring: the dogwoods, the camellias, the azaleas! Alas, maybe another day I can get some pictures of the flowering trees and bushes. Further, I also do not have photographs to make it quite evident that the stories I am about to tell actually took place, but that is a good thing.

Anyway, when I arrived at the gardens, I got Shastya loaded into the stroller, and headed off to the bathrooms. The sign on the bathroom building had two pictures on it: a woman and a man. The woman was on the left, and the man was on the right. So I turned left and hauled the stroller with baby Shastya in it into the bathroom.

Once we were all the way in the bathroom, walking past the sink, then the urinal . . . towards the stall . . . it occurred to me, "Ah, we're in the men's bathroom!" But did I mention, it was kind of a trick to even get the stroller in the bathroom. I wasn't going anywhere, not even to the women's bathroom. I had needed to find a bathroom, and we had found one. I maneuvered the jogging stroller into the stall . . . we finished, and were about to leave. Suddenly I heard footsteps . . . I saw two suede tan shoes appear in front of the urinal, next to our stall! I was thinking, "Ahh! you've got be kidding me." Then I got my phone out in case anything went amiss . . . The stranger left. We hurried out a minute later.

After walking the gardens for some time, I percieved one tall, lofty, dogwood tree that was particularly stunning. The tree's bright white petals were gleaming magnificently in the sunlight above the trail, against the backdrop of a Carolina blue sky. I stopped, turned the stroller so Shastya could get a good look at the tree too! I said something about, "See, God made that, He made you, and He made everything beautiful, but then . . ." I was going to go on telling her more, but she started crying.

A short while later as we were walking down a pine needle trail along the pond, we saw a lady and a little girl. I was excited because Shastya is a very social baby and loves seeing people and little children. I had just smiled at the people, when a snake, a real live snake showed up in between the four of us to be social. The little girl started walking towards it with her hand outstretched towards it. The snake was dark-colored and its tail started rattling.  I jumped back with my stroller, and mentioned that the snake's tail was rattling. The other woman didn't look concerned and said it was a garden snake. I hoped and prayed it was since the little girl was headed towards it. I just said I didn't like any kind of snakes and turned around and went back the way I had come.

We walked around some more, and then it was time to go home. When we were pulling out of the parking lot, turning onto the road, a bright cobalt blue sedan about sideswiped our car. The cobalt car had been parked at the end of the parking lot where there are no parking spaces. The car had been parked perpendicular to the road. My car had perpendicularly approached the sitting blue car. I turned left and paralleled the blue car before passing it and heading toward the road on a two-way driveway. Without warning the blue car started suddenly and headed for the road. There wasn't enough room for my car and the other car, it surely would have sideswiped me as it "made for" the road. I'm not sure what reality the other driver was living in at that moment, but I laid on my horn and brought the other driver back to the present!

Such adventures Shastya and I have . . . Overall, we had a very nice stroll in the woods, and in the sunshine. I am sure Shastya and I will return to SC Botanical Gardens before long. When we do, I hope to share photos from the gardens.