March Check-In

I haven't been in the writing mood much these days, but things have still been happening over here. Dreamy and I are about to hit nine months together, which is the longest I've ever dated someone! He's also the first guy I have dated who has fully stepped up on V-Day. He gave me the most gorgeous roses I have ever seen, a couple of gifts, and a card that he actually wrote "love" on. I was thinking that I didn't really want to go out to dinner on V-Day because of the crowds, and Dreamy must have read my mind, because he cooked us the most wonderful dinner. He made me feel very appreciated, and it made me wish I had stepped it up a little more with my gifts to him.

The major reason I have not written lately is because I had really been stressing over my summer internship search. I had spent a lot of time on interview prep and staying in touch with business contacts, and I felt guilty for spending too much time on "fun" activities outside of working out and keeping up with my favorite TV shows. I was really relieved to get an internship offer recently, and I won't even have to move. I thought the rest of the semester would be easy sailing from here, but I also have to complete drug testing in order to start the job. I am a huge water drinker and didn't realize that being adequately hydrated would dilute a drug test. I have to go back for a second one now, even though the first one was negative for drugs, just dilute, and if the result is dilute (even dilute negative) again, my job offer is going to be revoked. I am pretty stressed out about getting the right result. It sucks, because I obviously do not do drugs of any kind, but after a lot of Googling, it is apparent that illicit drug users try to dilute their drug tests purposefully - so it sends a flag to super-corporate places if your test result is dilute.

It sounds so dumb and simple, like - duh, drink less water and you'll be fine; however, it's not that simple. I regularly drink well over two times the recommended water intake (8 cups, or 64 ounces a day) and feel terribly dehydrated on less than this, but from what I've read, I have to be dehydrated in order to avoid a dilute result. In order to be dehydrated, I need to drink well under 64 ounces of water. I've been cutting back drastically, and it feels okay so far. What I'm going to try to do is go to the gym, sweat out a little, not go crazy on water, have a good pee before going to sleep, and then get the test done first thing in the morning without using the restroom first, to get the most concentrated urine of the day. I hope this will be enough. They give you really limited notice for the 48-hour window during which you can test, and I sure hope I can dehydrate myself enough in time. It would suck if my sample is still dilute after this, because from what I've read, this is still possible, yet for many well-hydrated people who have had job offers revoked because of test dilution, there has not been successful legal recourse. They just had to accept it and find another job. Cross your fingers for me!

In other news, I am now a fur-mommy. I adopted an adult terrier mix in February, and he is so cute! He needs some more training, but he is such a good dog. It is going to be hard when I have early days again - I live in an apartment so I have to walk the little guy outside for all his potty trips, and that takes up a lot of time in the morning. The little guy loves to sniff, so potty time is not always productive!