What are the chances?

Funny story.

So last night, my little brother’s apartment got robbed. When my mom told me, I immediately thought to myself…oh poor big screen TV, surround sound, Wii, Xboxes (is that how you pluralize Xbox?), video games, movies, iPods, Xunes, laptops (including a MacBook), guitars, and every other item worth money you can find in an apartment full of four male twenty somethings. When I actually called and talked to my brother about it, I found out that all that was taken was ONE of the Xboxes, a couple of Xbox games, and a really expensive guitar. Everyone, including myself, thought it must have been some stupid kid, on foot, and by himself, who probably wanted the items for his own use. Otherwise, he probably would have grabbed quite a few more items worth some money if he was planning on selling the stuff. Anyways, they reported it to the police figuring they would likely never get their stuff back.

Not to the funny part quite yet…

This morning, the only other things my brother and his room mates discovered were gone were a couple of bottles of cologne and some prescription pain killers. These things proved whoever it was had actually rifled through their stuff.

So here comes the funny part…

My brother’s room mate, the one who owned the guitar, actually spent his morning traveling around to pawn shops and gaming stores trying to see if anyone was trying to sell his guitar (worth a good amount of money) or my brother’s Xbox (which is quite a unique Xbox with a 300GB hard drive with loads of games and movies on it). Anyways, after he had spent quite a bit of time driving around with no luck, he stopped in at a pawn shop in Provo, where, lo and behold, he found the thief in the process of selling his guitar to the pawn shop!

I mean, seriously, what are the chances that he went in to the exact same pawn shop at the exact same time the guy was trying to sell it?

He went up to the kid, who was 18 years old, demanded to know where he got the guitar, told him he wasn’t going to let him leave, and called the police. The kid was stupid enough to claim that he had just found the guitar by a dumpster! The police showed up in five minutes and started questioning the kid. The kid still denied that he knew anything, but then his wonderful little girlfriend spilled the truth.

The kid ended up living in the apartment building just next to my brother’s. The cops took him home, found the rest of the stuff, and hauled his sorry ass away. He already had a criminal history and was on probation.

So, less then 24 hours later, peace and happiness was restored, and now my little brother can get back to watching all the movies he has downloaded on his Xbox.

I love you Adrianne

I am sad. I am more than sad. In some ways I am devastated. Adrianne McBride, one of my very best friends, died yesterday morning in a car accident. I saw her beautiful face twenty minutes before it happened. Twenty minutes. It is so unreal to me.

I feel both happy and guilty that I shared a bed with her her last night here on Earth. Happy because I am honored to have spent the last moments of her life with her; guilty because someone more worthy should have been able to share them. We had just spent the night celebrating my brothers' birthday with many of my friends. She arrived late to Red Robin, around 8pm, happier than ever. She said "I love you" and "I miss you" so many times that I can't even count. I just wish I had said them more times back. She looked beautiful, wearing black and yellow and one of my favorite necklaces of hers. She was in one of her best moods ever. My little brother had been asking forever when Adrianne would arrive; he was excited to spend time with his "movie soul mate," especially on his birthday. I am sad that in the picture taken of my group of friends, Adrianne hid her head behind mine, on purpose. :)

(notice she has a diet coke with lime in her hand :) )

We spent dinner talking about the movie He's Just Not That Into You, which we had both seen that day. She loved it, as she knew she would. She saw it with her friend Jonny I think; she was glad to have been able to spend time with him.

When dinner was over, I spent the next couple of hours letting Adrianne talk about anything and everything. I hardly said anything back...just listened. For some reason, although I was a little annoyed that she was doing all the talking, I felt like I needed to just listen, so I just let her talk. I am glad now, because I think I can recount much of what she talked about in the last moments of her life.

The first thing we did was head to Victoria Secret, one of her favorite stores. Adrianne loves lingerie (Is that how you spell it? I wish you were here to let me know). Adrianne loves anything that makes a person feel beautiful.

Next, we ran into a friend of mine, and when he told us he had just read The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, she instantly became his best friend and shared her love of everything Cormac McCarthy and her excitement for the movie of The Road soon to come out.

Then, we made a Del Taco run. Adrianne loves Del Taco. She ordered a load of food, refused to let me pay for my own order, (which she did all the time...she is one of the most generous people I know) and got a huge Diet Coke...her favorite. :)

As we sat down, she told me all about her sister's swim meet and how she was hoarse from cheering her family members on. So loyal. She loves her family so much.

She talked about her pregnant sister, the upcoming baby, and how excited she was for it to come. She talked about her pregnant sister's funny belly button and how great she thought it was.

She told me how funny she thought her brother-in-law Greg is and how his funny hand gestures make her laugh. She told me about how he once described his nipples as tarantulas (because they are hairy) while doing spider movements with his hands in front of his nipples. She demonstrated for me as I went into a fit of laughter. She told me how much she loved her sister and her husband and how perfect they are for each other.

She told me about her new job and how much she loved it! She told me about her instant friendship with the receptionist and how much they were alike. Adrianne was instantly friends with everyone.

We then went and hung out at my brother's apartment where we watched SNL. She had comments for everything that happened and comments about all the actors. She knows everything about acting, television, and the film industry, and she has opinions on it all. She talked to everyone like she had known them forever and informed everyone that if they weren't already watching 30 Rock, they needed to be. She shared her love for Alec Baldwin.

After awhile, we left, went home, and started getting ready for bed. She was excited that the only toothpaste I could find was my nephew's...bubble gum flavor and didn't hesitate to brush away while reminiscing about using it in childhood. Adrianne was passionate about everything! Her passion was always something I was a little jealous of.

She was totally okay with sharing a bed with me...it wasn't the first time. I was in love with hers and had fallen asleep in it several times on accident. She didn't mind at all. As we fell asleep, we talked about her friend Scott, about what a great person he was, how fun he was, and how she wished she could spend more time with him. She admired him a lot.

When we woke up. She told me how she hates to eat breakfast, how she hates waking up, and how happy she was to spend time with me.

She followed me to Maverick, filled up with gas, and she was on her way. One of the last things she told me was how much she loved and listened to a certain Death Cab song, and I am sad I cannot remember which one it is. I can't remember if I said I love you when she left, and I am sad about that.

About twenty minutes later, she joined all of our past loved ones on the other side. I will miss her, and I regret that I was not a better friend to her.

Adrianne was there for me in all the times that mattered most in the nine months that we were friends. She was strong in a way that I was not, and she lent some of that strength to me.

Adrianne- You taught me to be a little more passionate, a little more strong willed, and a little more empathetic. You felt peoples' pain in a way I know I never will be able to. You made me feel beautiful and loved. I have never had a more loyal friend than you. You are amazing!! Someday, I hope we meet again, and I hope you will forgive me for my shortcomings. Because of you, I will be a better friend to everyone I come in contact with. I will love you forever, for eternity.

Your friend,

Ashley

I wish I could be creative like this...

Before...



After...




Maybe someday...

Passing the stone was not the end...

So Monday afternoon, the day after I went to the doctor, I passed the stupid stone. I was immediately up and running and better than ever. By Wednesday morning, this was not the case. After going to bed at midnight, I woke up at 3am feeling extremely sick to my stomach. Within a half hour, I started throwing up. For around six to seven hours, I couldn't stop. I couldn't keep anything down, despite my extreme thirst.

I finally decided it was time to go back to the doctor, and after trying to call several different people, Darren was once again the lucky winner. Once I got there, and they called my name, I listed off all of my new symptoms to a different face this time. He immediately had me hooked up to an IV and started pumping fluids and nausea medicine into me. I was extremely dehydrated, had a heart rate of 130, and a temperature. They drew blood, had me pee in a cup, and did a couple of x-rays. The best part was that I just couldn't stop crying. I think I may have broken a record for crying this year. Everytime I had to tell someone new what was up and everytime they left me alone in the room, I would cry.

I think I ended up being there for almost two hours. Darren was a great friend through it all and was a very good sport when I made him come sit next to me when they stuck the IV in. When they finally came in to talk to me about all their lab results, they weren't quite sure what was wrong. They were pretty positive I had a urinary tract infection but it was probably combined with other things as well. Other options included: more kidney stones, a system messed up from the narcotics they gave me for the kidney stones, or a virus which I am guessing was worse because of my weakened immune system from the kidney stones. Pretty much I blame it all on kidney stones. Then to make it all worse, they sent me home and said that if I kept throwing up or being light headed that I needed to come back in and have more tests done.

So now it is Friday, and I am feeling oh so much better. My mom came up and helped me clean and do my laundry. She even bought me food and made me breakfast. She is great. My dad came too. He was worried. I love both of them.

If you stay tuned, my next post will include the best picture of my actual kidney stone that I could manage. Yay!

I heart my kidneys :)

7am, Sunday Morning

I wake up to a sharp pain in my side...something like cramps, but not quite. I am pretty sure there is something wrong with me, so I call my mom and tell her I am dying. That is how I communicate pain to my mother; she knows I am kidding, but she definitely knows there is something wrong. She suggests I get one of my soundly sleeping room mates to take me to the emergency room. I cringe at the thought of inconveniencing anyone about my mysterious pain. I am sure they'll just think I am crazy. My mom's friend, who is with her at the moment, suggests I wait a little bit. I pop in some Tylenol and wish that my Mom isn't in California about to run a half marathon in an hour. I talk to her for a little longer, convincing myself that it is just some mysterious pain that no one wants to hear about. As the pain begins to reside, I am glad I haven't woken up any of my room mates. I go back to sleep only to wake up a half an hour later to get ready for church. There is no pain, I am happy, and I leave to church at 9am better than ever.

10:30am

I am sitting in Sunday school listening to everyone talk about light. I am feeling anything but light as I experience a painful twinge in my side. I lean to my room mate, who I told about my mysterious pain on the way to church, and tell her that I think my pain is coming back. She just smiles. I think back to my past room mate and her mysterious pains and decide it is best to keep my pain to myself. So I sit there, trying to convince myself I am imagining it. Why I try to convince myself I am imagining it, I don't know; that would just provide more proof that I actually am crazy. Soon all I can think about is the pain, and I get up and leave with all my stuff. I know I am not coming back. ________________________________________________

So this is how it all started and this why I sit here in bed on a Monday afternoon instead of teaching high school. After leaving Sunday school, I had one of my room mates drive me home and then drove myself to the IHC Instacare. I didn't want to be that crazy person running into the emergency room with some unexplainable pain, and I didn't want to be that person who makes someone else come with them and support their claims about mysterious pains. After I got all checked in and they called my name, I explained to the doctor all of my wonderful symptoms. To my surprise, he didn't even come close to looking at me like I was crazy and within five minutes of sitting in his office determined that I probably had kidney stones. (kidney stone: noun, a hard mass formed in the kidneys, typically consisting of insoluble calcium compounds) After telling him how much soda pop I drink, he decided that that was probably not the problem. Instead, he attributed them to heredity. Thanks mom.

The pain just grew worse as I sat there, and the doctor explained to me that I was going to have to go to the hospital to get a CT scan just to make sure. He also said that they wouldn't give me any good drugs unless I could find someone to drive me. I tried to call my room mate and she didn't answer, so I called my good friend Darren, who was more than willing to offer his help.

From there I got a wonderful sharp poke full of drugs in each side, a bottle of Gatorade to fill up my bladder, a drive to the hospital, and an ugly hospital gown and a CT scan. Not only that, but I was dizzy and felt like I was going to puke the whole time.

Once we were done at the hospital, Darren drove me back to the Instacare, where right after I threw up, they informed me that, indeed, I was passing a kidney stone, and that there were several others waiting in my kidneys to come out in the years to come. The doctor informed me that it would be my "lot in life" to pass kidney stones. All I could imagine when he said that was someone several years down the road asking me what I do and me responding, "Oh, I pass kidney stones."

The doctor filled out three different prescriptions for me, gave me a funnel with a strainy thing at the end to pee into, and a container in a bag marked "biohazard" to collect my stone in once it had passed. Once it does pass, I get to take it back to the hospital so that they can perform laboratory tests on a little rock that has spent its lifetime in my kidney and urinary tract.

So I got on Google images and typed in kidney stone so that I could post some actual pictures, but pretty much they were too gross looking for me. So if you want to know what they look like, check them out yourself. Some of them looked like nothing less than a little piece of hell to me. Instead of providing you a picture of an actual stone, I will provide you a picture of where kidney stones are found in the body. Take note of how far it has to travel before it makes its way out. The doctor actually told me that the CT scan showed that the stone only had a couple of centimeters left in my body, so it better come out pretty dang soon.

Here ya go:



I would like to offer a special thanks to my many wonderful friends:

Darren, who drove me everywhere I needed to go, didn't think I was crazy, didn't make fun of me in a hospital gown, and who dumped my puke in the toilet.

Katie, who would've driven me everywhere if she could have and always made sure I was okay.

Chelsea and Shawna, who picked my car up from the Instacare.

And thanks to everyone else who was even in the least bit concernced.

I love you guys!

With graduation drawing nearer...

So in December, I, Ashley Nicole Christensen, graduate with a Bachelor's degree in English from Utah State University. I will also graduate with a Teaching Certificate. Yay for completing a five plus year program in four and a half years! So this is the deal. My mom wants to take me on a trip as a graduation gift but will only take me somewhere in the continental United States or Mexico. Where should I go...what should I see? I need some ideas!!

Surprise

When do you think Ashley will notice her blog got a makeover?

Happy first week of school, Ms. Christensen!