MRI

This past Saturday, I had my first MRI.  The results revealed that my brain looks normal, but I did come away from the test with one unexpected diagnosis–claustrophobia!

Once I knew I’d need an MRI, I searched online to find out if the technology had improved from the days of the casket-like scan.  I learned about more open and spacious modern machines.  When I visited my hospital’s website, I read that it was home to the latest technology in the radiology department, so I felt at ease under the assumption that I’d be able to use one of these newer machines.

Unfortunately, it appears that the hospital hasn’t updated its webpage since the advent of the internet, because I found myself face-t0-face with a rather old-looking, closed-off MRI scanner when I went to my appointment.  Thankfully, no one was waiting to use the scanner after me, so the technicians were able to help me ease into the machine.

Looking at the tube, it didn’t seem that bad.  The hole was pretty big, so at first I thought I’d be fine with the old-fashioned equipment.  Unfortunately, once I was on the table, I was told to put my head in a snug little holder.  All right enough.  But then the technician gave me a big helmet-type thing to go over my head, which basically locked me into the machine.  A bit scary, but manageable.  Then the technician began to raise the bed-like surface until my face was inches from the top of the machine.  YIKES!  She offered a more open “helmet” but I opted to stick with the first one she gave me since she told me it would produce a better image.  I practiced going in without the helmet, then with the helmet.  Finally, I realized that there was no way I was going to be comfortable with the procedure, so I decided to just close my eyes and focus on positive thoughts until the scan was over.  I was told it would only take 1o minutes, so I listened to the songs on the headphones they gave me, figuring that I’d be out in just 3.5 songs.  I knew I would panic if I opened my eyes for even a second, so I focused on remaining still (to promote a speedy and accurate scan) and keeping my eyes tightly shut.  Fortunately, the machine blew air on me the whole time, so it was easy to imagine that I was laying on a beach or in my bed instead of being stuffed in a tiny hole.  Needless to say, once the scan was over, I was outta there!

I hope I never need another MRI.

Halloween

Moving into a neighborhood has been a change for us, but it has had some benefits.

One thing we looked forward to about getting away from the dorms was being able to pass out candy to trick-or-treaters.  Well, Jake’s first year out of college, he lived in an apartment (while I was still in the dorm), and for whatever reason, no trick-or-treaters showed up, in spite of the fact that there were several young families in the complex.  By the next Halloween, we had moved into a home in the country.  Since acres of land separated many of the neighbors, that area just wasn’t cut out to be a Halloween hot spot.

Finally, this year, our dream of passing out candy came true!  Our current home is right next to an elementary school in a densely-packed neighborhood full of kids, so we figured we’d have lots of trick-or-treaters.  Our church was hosting a major trick-or-treating event attended by thousands of people, but we decided to stay at home this year in order to build bonds with our neighbors (since we are new to the neighborhood and haven’t gotten to know many of them yet).

Not long after school was over, young families began to crowd our streets, but they didn’t stop at many houses.  When I was a kid, we just stopped at any house that had a light on, but since our community has a rule that trick-or-treating stops at 7 p.m., the trick-or-treaters had to hit the streets way before lights would be noticeable.

I looked out my door and noticed a neighbor sitting on the bed of her truck with a bowl full of candy and quickly realized that I’d need to get outside to let people know that I had candy.  I just sat on the porch.  By the time Jake pulled up (a little before 5:30 p.m.), I could tell that the candy I had gotten (which I had feared would be too much) was not enough.  Jake quickly ran over to Kroger to get some reinforcements.  I gave away my last pieces of candy just as he pulled up.  Unfortunately, the number of trick-or-treaters trickled down as the evening wore on, meaning that we were still left with a bunch of candy.

We saw a lot of kids, but our neighbors said they usually see more.  I was amazed at how many parents from other places parked their vehicles in our neighborhood just for trick-or-treating.  I guess the fact that the kids have to be off the streets by 7 means they have to be very strategic about where they do their trick-or-treating.

We enjoyed the sense of community that we shared with our neighbors during the evening.  We met new people and got to know our neighbors a bit better.  I think that participating with everyone else helped people realize that we are approachable and that we are happy to be a part of our neighborhood.

Oh, and you would not believe the displays that some of our neighbors had!  We just put a couple of pumpkins on our doorstep, but one of our neighbors had more than a dozen electronic figures in his yard that responded to clapping.  It was a pirate-themed display this year, but every year it’s something new.  It was an impressive display!  Many other neighbors had lots of Halloween decorations as well.

Halloween is a tough holiday for me because I enjoy the sense of community and the fun it brings to kids, but don’t like to see evil glorified or the occult celebrated.  Most of the kids I saw were just having fun dressing up and collecting candy.  A few of the teenagers came out in scary or revealing outfits, but most people were just having fun as princesses, superheroes, animals, and the like.  For now, I think Jake and I will continue to celebrate as we did this year, passing out candy and putting up friendly, fall-themed decor.

New Soul

First, allow me to apologize for my hiatus from posting.  I kept trying to wait to post until I could add some pictures, but since I think the pictures I wanted to add have been deleted and lost forever, I figure it’s time to go ahead and post without them.  (I’ll let you know if I add some pics later.)

The title of this post does not refer to the song by Yael Naim or God’s redemptive grace–it refers to our new vehicle, a 2012 Kia Soul!

As part of the deal, we traded in our white 1999 Chevy Lumina.  Lulu the Lumina served us well.  She was my second car (the first was a red Honda Civic hatchback).  Lulu got me through my college days and my first two years of marriage without requiring any major repairs, a major feat considering that she had more than 170,000 miles on her at the time of trade-in.  While it was sad to see her go, we had known for some time that her useful lifespan was almost over.  She had a crack in her windshield that had been there since the weekend Jake and I got engaged in Summer 2009, a broken taillight from the time I ran into a pole while backing out of the MEP parking lot during my freshman year at Mercer, and an electrical issue that prevented the taillights from working properly without being rigged up.  Throughout most of our marriage, Jake has insisted that I drive his 2005 GMC Canyon rather than the Lumina because of its age and condition. She was a good vehicle, but it was time for her to go.

After months of vehicle research and many visits to local dealerships, we narrowed our search to the Nissan Cube or the Kia Soul. Since the storms in Japan had caused the availability of new Cubes to be unreliable, we focused in on the Soul.  Other benefits: Kia allowed us to take advantage of their military discount even on this popular vehicle (which Nissan would not have done) and Kia offers unbeatable warranties.  At first, the Kia salesman tried to get us to purchase loaded versions of the vehicle, but since most of the additional features meant little to us, we didn’t want to pay the extra money.  One day, we were close to making a deal on a basic Alien Green Soul (which is what I initially wanted), but the dealer couldn’t find one within hundreds of miles.  For weeks, the dealer looked but could not find one.  Finally, we told him we would consider other colors (figuring this would give us more leveraging power on price).  Then, on a Saturday afternoon at the end of October, the salesman called and asked us to come to the lot to check out a Titanium Soul + (which is the next step up from basic).  It wasn’t our favorite color, but since the dealer was trying to make the end-of-the-month quotas, we were able to snag it for a great price.  I’ve always loved the vehicle’s features, but after a month of driving it, I have to say that it’s color has grown on me.

Jake and I think it’s funny that this is the vehicle we chose, since the commercials are geared toward hipper people.  (We’re in the right age bracket, but definitely not the right coolness bracket.)  We started out looking at used minivans since we figured a minivan would have plenty of space for us for many, many years, but we ended up realizing that used car prices are inordinately high right now.  On a newer used vehicle, you only save a couple thousand (if that) versus the price of a new vehicle, but you lose the warranty, gain 10s of thousands of miles, and forfeit the peace of mind of knowing everything that’s happened to the vehicle and how it has been maintained.  With an older used vehicle, you can expect that certain parts will wear out before long, plus you have most of the same issues you deal with on a newer used vehicle.  We decided that a new vehicle was the best choice for us right now.  The minivan was quickly crossed off due to price, gas mileage, and the fact that it’ll be quite some time before we need that much space.  We then became interested in hatchbacks, particularly the Nissan Versa, but decided to focus in on the Soul and the Cube.  We liked that these two had good gas mileage, good prices, and spacious interiors.  Of all the vehicles we considered, the Soul had the most space (only a little more than the Cube and Versa, but hey, every bit counts).

Bonuses of waiting for the right vehicle at the right price?  We got a bunch of upgraded features (cargo net, cargo tray, carpeted floor mats, center console, more powerful engine, eco fuel features, etc.), including built-in Bluetooth, which we love!  Jake and I are not high-tech people, but we love the convenience and safety of having calls come through the vehicle’s speaker system.  Additionally, if we had gotten a 2011 Soul, the fuel economy would not have been as good.

We are so grateful to have a reliable vehicle that we enjoy driving.  We look forward to getting a lot of good use out of this vehicle in the years to come.