Back in that Portland Suburb

Well, I've officially moved back to Portland. Survived packing and loading the trailer in 95-degree heat. Sunday has to have been the most ridiculous day of my entire life.

First, I had to move all of my furniture out of my room Saturday so I could clean. This meant I had to sleep on the couch (actually, a *loveseat*) Saturday night. I got about 6 hours of sleep before the sun and the sounds of my housemates woke me up. I got dressed and drove over to Roma for my last cup of coffee and an apple turnover. Mmm. Yum.

Drove back to the house and packed up more boxes, did my dishes and watched some PBS. My parents weren't coming until around 1:30 in the afternoon, so I knew I could take some time and clean, watch TV, clean, watch more TV. I call my landlord to tell her I'll be moving soon, but she doesn't answer so leave a message (I never hear back from her). While I'm leaving the message, I notice out of my bedroom wheel that there is a bike wheel attached to the bike rack. A bike wheel *by itself*. Then, I noticed the abandoned bike wheel is from *my bike*. My freaking bike was stolen, one that I never used and really shouldn't have brought to Eugene in the first place. The bike was there on Friday, last I looked. Now, no more bike. I call my parents and they're a little upset, but there really isn't anything we can do about it.

At about 1:00, my roommate Yuliya decides we should go to the mall, so we get into my car. My car doesn't start.

Nothing. It's not just that the engine didn't start, or the starter didn't really start, but nothing. Dead silence.

Which is weird since I just *drove* the car not even three hours earlier. What. The. Crap. So first my bike is stolen, and now my car won't start. I call my parents and let them know what's up, and they tell me to contact Campus Public Safety so we can get it jump-started.

Except public safety doesn't work on weekends, apparently. I spend about 20 minutes calling random people to see if anyone is in town, but can't get a hold of anyone by the time my parents arrive. My dad wants to track down the place we bought the battery, since he thinks it might be drained since I never drive far enough to recharge it. However, we can't find the place, so he ends up buying jumper cables. We're driving back to my house when my mother's contact falls out, my friend Annie calls me back to tell me she doesn't have jumper cables, and my dad realizes that our jumper cables are actually sitting in the trunk of my car!

At this point, my dad turns to me and asks, "Allison, are you being punished for something?"

We end up getting the car working again (there was just some dust on the connectors on the battery...) and we load up the car in 95-degree heat. Yesterday was even hotter. We broke an all-time record with 102 degrees in the Portland area. Unbelievable. I know I shouldn't be complaining compared to the other weather going on in this country, but seriously. 102 is just too hot for anyone.

I still haven't done much unpacking because of the heat. I just want to climb into my freezer and stay there until our nice 75 degree summer days come back. 75, blue skies and all that green. It's basically why Oregonians can stand our 9 months of gray rainy weather. My brother and I moved his desk and my dresser back into my room, and we almost died trying to drag the dresser up the stairs from the garage. Laughing, carrying a heavy object, and stairs are a bad combination.

In other news, I've started my official duties as JDRF office intern on Monday, so that's fun. We are going to a taping of a local TV morning show tomorrow and on Saturday there is a rummage sale fundraiser for a Walk team.

And hopefully this blasted heat will go away so I can actually feel like a functioning human being again...

Calling All People!!!

Hey! You! Want to help me out with an article?

I'm writing an article for JDRF's Living with Diabetes newsletter on Travel with Diabetes and I want to include some quotes on best ways to handle travel with pre-teens and teens. I would love to get some tips on how to help parents who are either traveling with tween/teens or who are preparing tweens/teens who will be traveling alone.

I have a list of suggestions that I have come up with, but I'd like to get some quotes in there from people who are "travel experts." If you have cleaned any wisdom from your years of traveling as a teen or have traveled with your child and have advice you'd like other newbie parents to know about travel, please comment. You might see your suggestion or your quote in the article. Even if you don't think your comment applies to the article, comment anyway, it might inspire me!

Edit: Also, if your only suggestions have already been mentioned, please share some travel stories to illustrate the tip! Sometimes that's even more useful!

Need comments by Sunday night, so act fast!

Thanks!

Meme: The Deluxe Edition

These two memes brought to you by Megan and Kassie, respectively.

The "I Am..." Meme

1. I am less than two months away from my 21st birthday.
2. I am really excited that it's summer.
3. I am a wanna-be East Coaster.
4. I am a follower of Jesus.
5. I am a pumper.
6. I am a diabetic (if you hadn't noticed).
7. I am an obsessive-compulsive e-mail checker.
8. I am a writer.
9. I am a Trekkie.
10. I am an old soul.
11. I am addicted to coffee.
12. I am a Portlander.
13. I am not looking forward to packing up my room.
14. I am 127 mg/dl (at 1:47 p.m. on June 21, 2006-- not all the time, unfortunately).
15. I am a bookworm.
16. I am still single.
17. I am faithful.
18. I am a bit odd.
19. I am afraid of having my knees touched.
20. I am very loud sometimes.
21. I am a chronic giggler.
22. I am on Facebook.
23. I am part Hungarian, part Swedish, part English and part Irish.
24. I am a collector of shotglasses (41, baby!).
25. I am a daydreamer.
26. I am a thinker.
27. I am a traveler.
28. I am creative.
29. I am ticklish.
30. I am kind of a big deal.

The Top 12 Cool Things That Have Happened To Meme:

I was diagnosed with diabetes 12.5 years ago, and I kind of already did a similiar list in January for my 12th anniversary. So for this list, I'm going to go with strictly non-D related cool things.

1. At age 10, went to Sunriver, a resort in Central Oregon, and for the first time could freely exert my budding independence. Biked around the resorts 30+ miles of bike trails, went swimming, shopping at the village mall and ate ice cream. On this and subsequent trips, I was by myself a lot. This was before the days of cell phones and insulin pumps. Am still amazed I didn't die.
2. Took the First Aid/Babysitting class with my Girl Scout Troop. At age 11, commenced my (so far) life long career of babysitting.
3. At age 12, began my search for God at the Sunriver Community Church. Search for God led me to meeting my friend Ashleigh, one of my first very close online friends.
4. At age 13, went to the East Coast for the first time with my family and visited D.C. and Williamsburg. Had an old-fashioned Revolutionary War-era dinner with my mom in Williamsburg. Was very cool because I had an American Girl doll from that era (Felicity) and I got to be just like her.
5. At age 15, went to NYC with my mom and saw my first Broadway show (Chicago). Took a ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Stood inside the lobby of the World Trade Center to buy said Broadway tickets.
6. At age 16, got my driver's license. The next day, drove into Downtown Portland. For the first time. By myself. Didn't hit anything. Thank God.
7. At age 17, graduated from high school and became a Duck.
8. Went to France with my mom and stayed in a little Parisian apartment near Notre Dame. Turned 18 while in Paris. Also went to the Loire Valley and Mt. St. Michel. Saw a little 15th century house from the freeway. Thought it was a little odd, actually.
9. At age 19, was baptized on a Thursday.
10. Begrudgingly moved into a house that turned out to be one of the best decision I ever made. Spent a lot of time talking with three girls who helped me recover from a broken heart.
11. Flew across the country to Georgia to meet Ashleigh for the very first time. Also marks my very first time in the South.
12. At age 20, saw the most amazing concert in Los Angeles: Weezer, Beck, Cake, Oasis, Garbage... just to name a few. Amazing, simply amazing.

Freedom At Last!!!!

I'M DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WORK AND SCHOOL ARE OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HALLU-FREAKING-YAH!!!!!!!!

and now, time for laundry, cleaning my room, not eating out for every meal, testing my blood sugars on a regular basis, going to the gym, washing my dishes, and grocery shopping, which I haven't done in the past 3 weeks.

::shivers::

Too much information? Probably.

But I don't care!!!! Because I'm FREE!!!!!!!!

FREE-FALLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YEAH I'M FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FREE-FALLING!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, I'm done now. :-)

Coming Up For Air...

::Exhales::

What a week! Last week is what is known to the Ducks as "Dead Week." Dead Week is rumored to be the time when homework is diminished to leave time for studying, but that is just an Old Wives' Tale. Dead Week is really the time of the term when students, who are so sleep-deprived from twenty-four-seven from studying, deliriously walk into to oncoming traffic and are crushed to death.

Well, okay, that's not true, but I'm sure some students have thought about walking into oncoming traffic to escape studying for finals. Physically inabled just enough to get professor's sympathy and the final waived...

Not that I've ever thought of doing such a thing...

Anyway. Last week consisted of work at the AGP, my last PR presentation, a presentation for my non-profit class, and my International Communications final. On Thursday I took the bus to Portland. Friday, I went to the JDRF Corporate Recruitment breakfast, had a pow-wow meeting at the office to figure out what I'm doing this summer (mostly the newsletter and the website. How perfect.), and watched 4 hours of Star Trek (DS9 and The Next Generation. I am a closet geek.). Saturday was my friend Kelsey's high school graduation. Kelsey and I met at diabetes camp about 4 years ago. Graduation was typically boring, but dinner at McCormick and Schmick's was awesome. Raspberry cheesecake is ridiculously good and ridiculously bad for my blood sugars. Ooops...

Sunday was church! Woot! And a little trip to Nordie's where I spent 2 hours trying to find a bra that fit. Twenty-odd bras later and I finally found one. Why are so many evil, annoying things necessary for survival? Honest to Betty... I spent most of Monday driving around and running errands, before driving back to Eugene. Picked up my test strips from the pharmacy as well.

Which brings me to Allison's I Hate Diabetes Story of the Week. (How's that for a transition?)

So, a couple of months ago my mom switched the way we are paying for anything medical (includes everything from aspirin to insulin). The details aren't that important, but Minimed sent me the supplies before the new way of paying switched which was bad news. My dad was able to negotiate with Minimed to let me send the supplies back, even though it had been more than 30-days. Sounds groovy, right?

Uh, sure.

I call Minimed to get the Return information and I also ordered new supplies. I informed them that I was down to two boxes (100 test strips) before running out. The woman said she would try to get them to send them out as soon as possible. That was on Tuesday.

The following Monday and I'm at the Memorial Union, sitting down at 4pm to my first actual meal of the day, when my cell phone rings. It's a guy from Minimed. He tells me that they are going to ship out my box tomorrow, "But," he says, "we're not able to send one item."

Huh?

He informs me that my test strips (the one and only item that I actually need NOW!) is not longer covered by my insurance as durable medical equipment.

I have no idea what that means, all I know is they aren't sending my test strips. And they decided to wait a WEEK to tell me. Honest to Betty, were they waiting for a personal invitation?

I rush home and call my insurance company and the nice woman informs me that for some reason, I now have to get my test strips from the pharmacy. Like everyone else in America, yes, but I've been getting my test strips in 3 month batches from Minimed for the last 5 years. I don't like change!

I called my pharmacy and I called my endocrinologist and after playing a bit of phone tag, finally got everything settled. Stopped in at the pharmacy on Thursday to find out if they got the order and discovered that I only get a month's supply of test strips instead of my usual three months.

All this because my insurance suddenly has decided to make it a pharmacy purchase without even telling me.

Moral of the story: Insurance companies suck. If they weren't necessarily for survival, I would say get rid of them.

Anyway, I am now back in Eugene finishing up finals week at school. One paper and one PR portfolio have already been turned in, and now I'm gearing up for my last Final of Doom and Despair. Get this: My history professor gave us our Study Guide which is just 26 possible essay questions. From those 26, he will choose 8 for the final. And of those 8, we have to write essays on 2 of them. Have I mentioned this final is worth HALF MY GRADE?! Seriously, that kind of weighting should be illegal.

Sigh. Well, I guess I better get back in there. Catch ya later!

::Inhale::

Better Than Three

Scene: A conversation between two friends, Allison and Julia, at Cafe Yumm, a deliciously organic restaurant that services the world's greatest rice bowls. Julia, Allison's friend from high school and a non-diabetic, remarks that she is tired because she didn't get much sleep.

ALLISON: Yeah, I went low twice last night. Once at 2 in the morning, and the other at 8:30 a.m. The 8:30 wasn't too bad, but man I hate waking up in the middle of the night.

JULIA: (grimacing) Eesh. But hey, at least it wasn't three times.

ALLISON: (blank stare)

JULIA: Well, it's true

ALLISON: Yeah... I suppose going low twice is better than going low three times.

JULIA: Hey, I'm just trying to be optimistic.

ALLISON: (smiling) Yeah, going low three times definitely would have sucked.

JULIA: And it's definitely way better than going low four times.

ALLISON: Oh, definitely.

JULIA: But going low 5 times would have been cool.

ALLISON: (laughing) Oh yeah, five times definitely would have been cool.

JULIA: But not six times. That would have been bad.

ALLISON: (nods) Oh yeah. Really bad.

JULIA: Eight times would have been awesome, though.

ALLISON: Ha, yeah, eight times would have been the greatest.

JULIA: Seven times would have been kinda okay. But eight definitely would have been awesome.

ALLISON: Definitely.

JULIA: But at least it was twice and not three times.

My Life = Total Awesomeness

Well, I can finally post the big news that I have been waiting since FEBRUARY to tell you all.

I sold my website, Diabetes Teen Talk, to dLife. Accepted the deal yesterday.

And they are bringing me on board as a "content consultant."

YAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is exciting for a few reasons.

Number One: I get paid! For stuff I've been doing for free! So EXCITING!

Number Two: Diabetes Teen Talk will have a future. The big concern I have always had with having Teen Talk (in either the Diabetes Portal version or the current version) was the fact that I don't know if I'm going to be able to continue to work on it when I graduate from college. I know having a full-time job doesn't necessarily negate the possibility of having the website. I mean, I am in college full-time, and have a part-time job, too (Ugh). But I was always afraid that once I got to be too old- like 30 or something - or too involved in a career/family, I would not have the ability/time to devote to a resource that I think is REALLY important. So having it a part of the dLife family means that if for whatever reason I don't continue working on Teen Talk it will continue on.

I'm also hoping to wrangle a full-time job out of this, since I am GRADUATING next year (insert scream here).

3) Beaucoup opportunities for me to do some really cool stuff for teens and for people in general with diabetes that I wouldn't be able to do if I was on my own. Yay for other people!

So yeah. That's the big news. There might be more big news associated with this new change, but I don't know what any of that is right now. But you will be the first to know.

Well, maybe second.

Okay, you're at least on the top 10 of first people to know. :-)

In other late-breaking-totally-exciting news, I:

1) have only 7 more shifts left at the AGP (thank God) because it's almost summer!!
2) am in the new summer issue of JDRF's Countdown magazine. Hurrah! I will try to scan it and put up a link to it as soon as I can get my hands on a copy. But go get yourself a copy anyway. You can get them for free at your local chapter. Or, heck, JOIN the JDRF and then you get them all year long! Woohoo! Yay for JDRF and research news and all that good stuff.
3) am volunteering for the ADA BBQ auction tomorrow, which should be funfunfun. Yay for volunteering. And I get class credit for it! Double hurrah!
4) am no longer doubling over in pain from my stupid back. Physical therapy = my new best friend. Seriously. It's even forcing me to go to the gym everyday (well, except for today...) which is great.
5) get to see my best friends Julia & Justin from high school on Saturday. Wahoo! I haven't seen either of them since December, which is a crazy long time to go without seeing those you love.

and lastly:

6) am totally, 100% obsessed with the band Anberlin. I'm listening to Paperthin Hymn right now and it's AWESOME!!!!!!! Download them now!

Ok. Seven totally awesome things about my life. I think I've got everyone caught up with the exciting, intrepid world of Allison.

Screw diabetes. My life rocks.