24 weeks pregnant today. Officially, the twins are considered viable. And yet, it's all still very surreal.
I wouldn't trade this experience for the world. Pregnancy has been truly wonderful thus far. The movement and kicks I'm getting (more frequently) are amazing. Really and truly. I remember thinking how amazing it was to feel my niece kick from the outside. It's a million times more incredible firsthand. The Monkey has been able to feel them quite a few times. (The kicks are still sometimes not as strong. The babies are still relatively tiny; my placenta is anterior; and, y'know, I'm pudgy.) When they're particularly active (usually sometime in late afternoon) I can sit and watching them poke my belly and just be completely awestruck. This is definitely my favorite part of pregnancy thus far.
Things are going swimmingly. Every two weeks I get checked out by either my OB or my perinatologist and we've had zero bad news. My cervix remains long and closed. Babies are always moving/bouncing around like crazy. Heartbeats are always wonderful. It's incredible how after so long of struggling with loving my body because it could never do anything right. Now it seems to be doing exactly what anyone could want from it. For that, I am thankful.
There are other things going on outside of preggie-ville. The Monkey is "scheduled" to lose his job sometime around June/July. Kind of perfect and crappy timing all at once. The good thing is that he'll be eligible for displaced worker retraining. He's finally going to get to go to college and get his A and P certification and, hopefully, after his schooling he'll be able to land a job pretty quick with one of the many aviation places we have around here. He's wanted to work on (well, actually fly) helicopters/aircraft for as long as he can remember. He moved to Alabama to do just that but things just got in the way. (In his words -- he always either had the time or the money; never both.) With the retraining program, he will get $10k to pay for schooling. There is a big of a money gap after that but we're sure he can fill it with grants (hooray for tax deductions!) and student loans if necessary. The great thing about all of this is that the college courses he took in the mid-90s (hehe... when I was still in middle school [snerk]) will ALL transfer to this new program! So basically he has all of his general ed classes out of the way. I know it's a little crazy to be excited about him losing his job with two babies on the way, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. He'll qualify (and get) unemployment. The only thing we really have to worry about is medical insurance for him as I will have Medicare and the babies will qualify for Medicaid. I'm hoping we can get him insurance using some sort of student program. He doesn't get sick often. And even when he does it usually doesn't require medical attention. Our only worries are kidney stones and his mediccation. (And even the latter is not the bigger of the worry as all of his meds can be prescribed by our family doc and they are all generic and dirt cheap.) In the meantime, we have money saved and we have virtually no bills to worry about.
April is right around the corner. We'll be celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary (8 years together!) and getting our 4D ultrasound done as well. And then there will also be my babyshower (!!!) at the end of the month. Everything is happening so quickly.
I can't wait to meet this precious little gifts on the outside. <3
Showing posts with label the monkey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the monkey. Show all posts
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
21w1d -- onward march!
Pregnancy is starting to feel more real every day. It's still surreal in so many ways. Like I still can't picture two babies sleeping next to me or even changing cute little fluffy butts just yet. But I'm starting to get very distinct pokes and prods from the inside and oh man does that help with the reality! The Twinkies were particularly active the day before yesterday and I swear I couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear. Even the sharp groin kicks made me giggle (and those, uh... hurt).
The Monkey and I went and toured the Family Birth Center at the hospital we're going to deliver at. It was wonderful! All of their rooms are birthing suites. No sharing rooms! The Monkey is allowed to stay with me the entire time (overnight and everything!) which is something I had no clue about. (They don't allow that at our local hospital.) Also, you labor, deliver, and recover in the same room. No being shuffled around! The hospital has a low level NICU and capabilities to medevac to a hospital with a higher level NICU if needs be. (But we're not going to NEED a NICU at all, damnit. That's my resolve and I'm sticking to it!) (That, of course, is my hope and prayer... but we asked for the details because we all know that reality can very easily ruin one's plans.)
Before we headed out for the hospital tour we stopped in Target and picked up a couple more of our 'big' baby items. Specifically a swing and two bouncers. I was looking at a different bouncy seat but when The Monkey saw that they had bouncers that matched the swing he talked me into that one. Imagine! The Monkey being the one that wants stuff to match! [insert ironic laughter here]
I think we are nearly done with the big stuff. We bought the car seats. The co sleeper is on its way (I got a fantastic deal!). The nursery is painted. The nursery furniture should be here in a few weeks. We have the bedding and such. And now we have the bouncers and swing. We're waiting to see if we can get a better deal on the stroller we want before jumping into that. I'm trying not to go overboard on buying smaller stuff that will make good baby shower gifts. Clothes are a complete NON-issue. Between the hand-me-downs my sister gave us, the stuff I got on sale at Target, and the stuff my mom and sister "couldn't resist buying," I think we're set for the first few months at least. Oh, and I went a little nutso on cloth diapers so we're pretty good there as well. :P
Now all we need are a couple of adorable little babies! But I am patient and want them to stay right where they are for a minimum of another 15 weeks.
The Monkey and I went and toured the Family Birth Center at the hospital we're going to deliver at. It was wonderful! All of their rooms are birthing suites. No sharing rooms! The Monkey is allowed to stay with me the entire time (overnight and everything!) which is something I had no clue about. (They don't allow that at our local hospital.) Also, you labor, deliver, and recover in the same room. No being shuffled around! The hospital has a low level NICU and capabilities to medevac to a hospital with a higher level NICU if needs be. (But we're not going to NEED a NICU at all, damnit. That's my resolve and I'm sticking to it!) (That, of course, is my hope and prayer... but we asked for the details because we all know that reality can very easily ruin one's plans.)
Before we headed out for the hospital tour we stopped in Target and picked up a couple more of our 'big' baby items. Specifically a swing and two bouncers. I was looking at a different bouncy seat but when The Monkey saw that they had bouncers that matched the swing he talked me into that one. Imagine! The Monkey being the one that wants stuff to match! [insert ironic laughter here]
I think we are nearly done with the big stuff. We bought the car seats. The co sleeper is on its way (I got a fantastic deal!). The nursery is painted. The nursery furniture should be here in a few weeks. We have the bedding and such. And now we have the bouncers and swing. We're waiting to see if we can get a better deal on the stroller we want before jumping into that. I'm trying not to go overboard on buying smaller stuff that will make good baby shower gifts. Clothes are a complete NON-issue. Between the hand-me-downs my sister gave us, the stuff I got on sale at Target, and the stuff my mom and sister "couldn't resist buying," I think we're set for the first few months at least. Oh, and I went a little nutso on cloth diapers so we're pretty good there as well. :P
Now all we need are a couple of adorable little babies! But I am patient and want them to stay right where they are for a minimum of another 15 weeks.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
reality
I'm beginning to wonder when pregnancy is going to feel real. My logical/rational side keeps telling me to keep my cool because bad things can still happen. But my heart is telling me that these are my bring home babies. I can't explain my heart but right now, it speaks much louder than my brain. (It doesn't hurt that I'm able to hear the Twinkies on my home doppler now.)
My brain is busy processing that there will more than likely be two little babies in the house in roughly seven months time. Still... my mind's eye just can't see it. I still can't picture my belly getting big and round. I still can't picture myself nursing (or bottle feeding -- whatever the case may be). Which is really strange because while we were going through cycle after cycle of trying I had zero issues picturing us as parents.
But now that it's really happening, I'm drawing complete blanks! What's up with that?
In other news, The Monkey and I went to Toys 'R Us to do some Christmas shopping and spent our first 20 minutes on the Babies 'R Us side. I don't think The Monkey would admit it but I could sense a hint of excitement from him. He poked and prodded through the different "contraptions." He played with strollers and infant carriers. He even looked at nursery decor.
There aren't enough words to express my happiness right now. I'm just wondering... when does it feel really real??
My brain is busy processing that there will more than likely be two little babies in the house in roughly seven months time. Still... my mind's eye just can't see it. I still can't picture my belly getting big and round. I still can't picture myself nursing (or bottle feeding -- whatever the case may be). Which is really strange because while we were going through cycle after cycle of trying I had zero issues picturing us as parents.
But now that it's really happening, I'm drawing complete blanks! What's up with that?
In other news, The Monkey and I went to Toys 'R Us to do some Christmas shopping and spent our first 20 minutes on the Babies 'R Us side. I don't think The Monkey would admit it but I could sense a hint of excitement from him. He poked and prodded through the different "contraptions." He played with strollers and infant carriers. He even looked at nursery decor.
There aren't enough words to express my happiness right now. I'm just wondering... when does it feel really real??
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Happy Birthday to My Monkey!
The Monkey is 37 today. He wanted carrot cake for his birthday (it's his favorite) and I wanted to scratch my cake decorating itch. So we compromised... I made him a "show off" cake and a carrot cake. Hehe...
I tried to incorporate something that I thought would reflect him but I couldn't think of what to do! Then I decided to do a Rubik's Cube.
My black fondant didn't turn out right so I did chocolate buttercream instead (tinted black). Also, the cube doesn't have cube dimensions (LOL!) but it is solvable (if it were, you know, real Rubik's Cube size).
I tried to incorporate something that I thought would reflect him but I couldn't think of what to do! Then I decided to do a Rubik's Cube.
My black fondant didn't turn out right so I did chocolate buttercream instead (tinted black). Also, the cube doesn't have cube dimensions (LOL!) but it is solvable (if it were, you know, real Rubik's Cube size).
Sunday, September 19, 2010
countdown to the 2WW
My ovaries are officially sore. The Monkey came over to "squish" me on the bed (we do this a lot) and I screamed in pain because he squished me on the tummy and it hurt. He felt bad, poor guy.
I'm extremely anxious but also excited. But probably more anxious.
So to take my mind off of things The Monkey is going to take me out shopping for a shiny new KitchenAid standing mixer! [insert jumpy emoticon here] Then I think I will come home and bake something -- anything -- to try it out. I will probably wind up with the classic model even though the professional series is really drool worthy.
The Monkey turns 37 in a week.
I'm extremely anxious but also excited. But probably more anxious.
So to take my mind off of things The Monkey is going to take me out shopping for a shiny new KitchenAid standing mixer! [insert jumpy emoticon here] Then I think I will come home and bake something -- anything -- to try it out. I will probably wind up with the classic model even though the professional series is really drool worthy.
The Monkey turns 37 in a week.
Monday, September 13, 2010
restless mind... meet EASE
I walked to the mailbox this afternoon actually expecting it to be empty. Instead, it was full (got a shipment of medication). Underneath the package there were a few pieces of mail. One of which appeared to be a US Treasury check -- addressed to me. I opened it last afraid it would burst my bubble.
But it did not. It was my lump sum back pay for SSDI. My attorney got paid off the top so the remainder (that I got paid) is ours.
Today, relief is spelled V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!
Also, day four of injections went just fine. The teensy Follistim needles are all 'pshaw... is that all you got?" And I got a full extra dose out of the 300 IU cartridge FTW! I'm expecting something similar out of the Gonal-F pens. So I have a little bit left in my Follistim pen which I fully intend on using tomorrow and I'll finish up my dose with a second injection of Gonal-F. Thursday I go for my follicle scan. Hoping to see a minimum of three growing but I'll settle gladly for two, though. Well, to be perfectly honest, I'll be overjoyed with one good egg that results in a real, live take-home-baby!
The Monkey's birthday is coming up. I was having major issues coming up with a cake design that I could actually handle. Most of the things he enjoys would be exceptionally complicated and/or artsy (e.g. a WoW themed cake). So then I got to thinking about the time I was taking one of my many IT courses and The Monkey was helping me understand how to read binary. Then he showed me a binary clock which was exceptionally cool once I got the hang of reading it. I thought about making him a binary clock cake (which would be simple) but then I thought... binary... The Matrix! He's a total Matrix junkie. I can hardly watch The Matrix with him because he knows the dialogue so well. So I'm trying to search for designs that I can scam off of. :P With the back pay safely in our bank account, I fully intend on going out and buying myself the Kitchen Aid standing mixer I've been drooling over for... oh years now. They have it in a very pretty yellow at Bed Bath & Beyond. No more sore elbow for me! Huzzah!
But it did not. It was my lump sum back pay for SSDI. My attorney got paid off the top so the remainder (that I got paid) is ours.
Today, relief is spelled V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!
Also, day four of injections went just fine. The teensy Follistim needles are all 'pshaw... is that all you got?" And I got a full extra dose out of the 300 IU cartridge FTW! I'm expecting something similar out of the Gonal-F pens. So I have a little bit left in my Follistim pen which I fully intend on using tomorrow and I'll finish up my dose with a second injection of Gonal-F. Thursday I go for my follicle scan. Hoping to see a minimum of three growing but I'll settle gladly for two, though. Well, to be perfectly honest, I'll be overjoyed with one good egg that results in a real, live take-home-baby!
The Monkey's birthday is coming up. I was having major issues coming up with a cake design that I could actually handle. Most of the things he enjoys would be exceptionally complicated and/or artsy (e.g. a WoW themed cake). So then I got to thinking about the time I was taking one of my many IT courses and The Monkey was helping me understand how to read binary. Then he showed me a binary clock which was exceptionally cool once I got the hang of reading it. I thought about making him a binary clock cake (which would be simple) but then I thought... binary... The Matrix! He's a total Matrix junkie. I can hardly watch The Matrix with him because he knows the dialogue so well. So I'm trying to search for designs that I can scam off of. :P With the back pay safely in our bank account, I fully intend on going out and buying myself the Kitchen Aid standing mixer I've been drooling over for... oh years now. They have it in a very pretty yellow at Bed Bath & Beyond. No more sore elbow for me! Huzzah!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
ch-ch-changes
One can only assume it was a matter of time before we wore out our welcome here, right? I mean we've been staying at my sister's for going on two years and that's a long time to live with someone. It's definitely more than I can expect. More than anyone can expect, I guess.
Things have been going downhill for a while. I'm not sure exactly why. My sister has always been clear that she is fine with us being here. She enjoys our company (and I think a part of her enjoys having a 'buffer' between her and her husband). But her husband feels otherwise and I guess that's fine. The whole mess started out over money. I'm a little irritated that he's taking things out on us that aren't our fault. (Like the fact that the boat he and my dad went in on together is now in default because my dad is in jail. Or that he didn't account for things coming out of his retirement like, oh say health and dental insurance. Or that he didn't listen to me when I tried to tell him how SSD really worked. And now he's getting no where even close to the income he thought he was going to be getting now that he's out of the military. So all of a sudden The Monkey and I should start paying half of the $400 electric bill? And help with other utilities? And prepare meals several times a week? And I should talk about filing bankruptcy since I clearly can barely afford to keep up with my credit card payments.) But all of this would be water under the bridge if it weren't for the conniving way he went about "asking" us to leave. Because he didn't. He picked an argument with my sister and gave her an ultimatum -- tell them to leave or I'm leaving. What kind of husband does that??
So, we've been tossing around the idea with moving in with my mom. We can't afford a place of our own until my disability kicks in and that could be several months from now still. (Have I mentioned lately how incredibly tiring this process is??) We hadn't gone forward with it because we were mostly worried about my sister's feelings. She'd already mentioned that she didn't want us to move out. And it went from that from that to this overnight.
So I guess we'll be spending the next week or two getting things organized and moved into storage. We won't need a lot of the things we have here. Our TV and dressers can go into storage as can most of our furniture. We mostly just need our clothes and essentials. There's a big part of me that's utterly relieved. No more worrying about creepy crawlies and sweating to death in the summer time. The Monkey and I can finally look at getting back on track with eating properly. My cats will finally have room to run around. Olivia has really been acting strange lately. Almost like she has cabin fever (if it's possible for an animal to get such). It's certainly going to be an interesting adjustment, though. Our three cats, my mom's two cats, and her chihuahua. Wow. We're definitely going to need a couple more litter boxes.
With this has come all sorts of new questions. My mom keeps telling me that I should stop my BCPs and we should start TTC again. (FYI - this living situation could be semi-permanent. Once my dad gets sentenced, he's likely to get prison time from anywhere from 10 - 15 years; if not longer. My mom has the room and she's not bad company or hard to get along with.) I've already told her that we are not going to be ready for that right away. (I will admit that it's totally tempting; but we're not in financial shape right now to TTC much less support a child. But it is nice knowing that maybe we can start some sort of "countdown" to trying again. Perhaps a 2011 or 2012 baby is on the horizon?)
In the meantime, I have surrendered my credit cards to The Monkey. I am going to start with my lowest balance card and start hacking away at balances the best I can. It's not going to be easy and it's definitely not going to be quick but it has to be done. With any luck we'll have a couple paid off by the end of the year and we can use our tax return to pay off one or two more.
Change. fdsjkf;sjdk
Things have been going downhill for a while. I'm not sure exactly why. My sister has always been clear that she is fine with us being here. She enjoys our company (and I think a part of her enjoys having a 'buffer' between her and her husband). But her husband feels otherwise and I guess that's fine. The whole mess started out over money. I'm a little irritated that he's taking things out on us that aren't our fault. (Like the fact that the boat he and my dad went in on together is now in default because my dad is in jail. Or that he didn't account for things coming out of his retirement like, oh say health and dental insurance. Or that he didn't listen to me when I tried to tell him how SSD really worked. And now he's getting no where even close to the income he thought he was going to be getting now that he's out of the military. So all of a sudden The Monkey and I should start paying half of the $400 electric bill? And help with other utilities? And prepare meals several times a week? And I should talk about filing bankruptcy since I clearly can barely afford to keep up with my credit card payments.) But all of this would be water under the bridge if it weren't for the conniving way he went about "asking" us to leave. Because he didn't. He picked an argument with my sister and gave her an ultimatum -- tell them to leave or I'm leaving. What kind of husband does that??
So, we've been tossing around the idea with moving in with my mom. We can't afford a place of our own until my disability kicks in and that could be several months from now still. (Have I mentioned lately how incredibly tiring this process is??) We hadn't gone forward with it because we were mostly worried about my sister's feelings. She'd already mentioned that she didn't want us to move out. And it went from that from that to this overnight.
So I guess we'll be spending the next week or two getting things organized and moved into storage. We won't need a lot of the things we have here. Our TV and dressers can go into storage as can most of our furniture. We mostly just need our clothes and essentials. There's a big part of me that's utterly relieved. No more worrying about creepy crawlies and sweating to death in the summer time. The Monkey and I can finally look at getting back on track with eating properly. My cats will finally have room to run around. Olivia has really been acting strange lately. Almost like she has cabin fever (if it's possible for an animal to get such). It's certainly going to be an interesting adjustment, though. Our three cats, my mom's two cats, and her chihuahua. Wow. We're definitely going to need a couple more litter boxes.
With this has come all sorts of new questions. My mom keeps telling me that I should stop my BCPs and we should start TTC again. (FYI - this living situation could be semi-permanent. Once my dad gets sentenced, he's likely to get prison time from anywhere from 10 - 15 years; if not longer. My mom has the room and she's not bad company or hard to get along with.) I've already told her that we are not going to be ready for that right away. (I will admit that it's totally tempting; but we're not in financial shape right now to TTC much less support a child. But it is nice knowing that maybe we can start some sort of "countdown" to trying again. Perhaps a 2011 or 2012 baby is on the horizon?)
In the meantime, I have surrendered my credit cards to The Monkey. I am going to start with my lowest balance card and start hacking away at balances the best I can. It's not going to be easy and it's definitely not going to be quick but it has to be done. With any luck we'll have a couple paid off by the end of the year and we can use our tax return to pay off one or two more.
Change. fdsjkf;sjdk
Sunday, January 3, 2010
new year, yada yada
The holidays commenced with mostly a minimal amount of madness this year. Christmas was a bit of a let down. Even though I thought that I'd mentally prepared myself to spend the holiday just The Monkey and me, it turned out to be very difficult. I spent a good deal of Christmas Eve night and Christmas day crying. Er...sobbing. Boo hoo. I don't think it would've been quite so depressing if The Monkey hadn't had a sudden recurrance of his sciatica. It was so bad that he was incapacitated. Eventually I convinced him (and myself) that he needed medical attention. We drove out to the medical center (which is about 45 minutes away) to the ER. We chose to do this instead of going to our local hospital because we know the type of ER care our hospital gives and it's NOT what we were looking for. As it turned out, however, we wasted the extra money in gas because the medical center was just as bad! If not worse. The on call doctor refused to call the on call MRI staff (seeing as how it was Christmas and all) and sent The Monkey home with NO medication. He got three shots in the butt before he left: a steroid, a pain killer, and a muscle relaxer. But that wasn't after the on call ER doc practically drilled him about his prescription drug use. (She was very accusatory with her line of questioning asking him how often our GP prescribes him Lortab for pain; how often he takes it... blah blah blah.) The Monkey was being very polite until I jumped in and told her very sternly that the prescription he was currently taking for pain was nearly a year old and that he almost NEVER takes pain killers if he can help it. It would be one thing if he even looked a little like he was faking it. But, I'm sorry, you can NOT "fake" a significant rise in BP (like 20+ points) or a crazy fast heart rate. He was in a LOT of pain! At any rate, the medication they gave him either did him some good or the rest and massages and stretching we did at home did him some good. Either way, on the 26th he was completely mobile again. He isn't in pain anymore, so to speak. His back no longer hurts and neither does his butt or his leg; but his calf and parts of his right foot are tingly/numb. We know it's a low back nerve issue. We are working on getting him setup for an MRI.
So, yeah, Christmas pretty much sucked. But it's just another day on the calendar, right? I certainly can't let one day (regardless of it's cultural or religious significance) ruin an entire year. 2009 certainly wasn't, by any means, a horrible year. It was full of some ups and downs (what year isn't??) but over all, I think it was pretty darn good.
2009 certainly ended well. The Monkey, as I said before, went from being incapacitated by pain on Christmas to being almost completely normal for New Year's Eve. My sister and family came home from their vacation early so they were all here for New Year's Eve as well. I have to say I was quite happy that they cut their vacation short. As selfish as that may sound! At any rate, we hung out over at my mom and dad's for th evening. We'd brought our X-Box and stuff over their house for Christmas Eve but didn't get to play it because we wound up staying at home. But we did play it on New Year's Eve and it was a lot of fun. I had a few Mike's Spiced Apple (YUM!!) and a couple of weak rum and Cokes. I can't really drink much alcohol these days. Not only do I not drink often so I've become quite the lightweight. Not to mention several of my daily medications interact with alcohol (read: I get drunker WAY faster) so just a few drinks does me in pretty quick. Which is actually kind of nice. I'm definitely a cheap bar date! Anyhow, we rang in the New Year playing pool and having a good time. We left shortly after midnight and came home to sleep.
Speaking of SLEEP... the most exciting part of 2009 happened on New Year's Eve. The Monkey and I actually slept together in the same bed all night!! We haven't slept in the same bed for three years because his snoring was just that bad. I finally bit the bullet and jumped through a dozen hoops to get him set up with a CPAP machine. The first night was horrific because his pressure setting was WAY too low and he felt like he was suffocating. But now that we have that fixed I don't even have to fight with him to put the darn thing on! We woke up early this weekend for our usual routine of cuddling and early morning nookie. Afterwards I fell back asleep. And he did as well. Imagine my surprise when I woke up and saw that he'd put his mask back on to do so! He can certainly tell the difference in how he feels. And WOW... so can I! He already has much more energy. He's been sitting down to play video games (both WoW and X-Box) without falling asleep during. I took more naps this weekend than he did! It has been absolutely incredible and I only wish we'd known years ago how good one of these machines would be for him! I have a feeling that he'll start losing weight easier now that his body is getting recouperative rest. We are both looking forward to being healthier and happier in 2010; even moreso than we were in 2009. (In fact, I've set my sights on a NEW weight loss goal. I lost a total of 33 pounds in 2009 -- about seven pounds short of my goal. My new goal for 2010 is to lose at least another 30. Definitely more if I can manage!)
So alls well that ends well. Now I'm going to go crawl into bed with my husband and go to sleep.
So, yeah, Christmas pretty much sucked. But it's just another day on the calendar, right? I certainly can't let one day (regardless of it's cultural or religious significance) ruin an entire year. 2009 certainly wasn't, by any means, a horrible year. It was full of some ups and downs (what year isn't??) but over all, I think it was pretty darn good.
2009 certainly ended well. The Monkey, as I said before, went from being incapacitated by pain on Christmas to being almost completely normal for New Year's Eve. My sister and family came home from their vacation early so they were all here for New Year's Eve as well. I have to say I was quite happy that they cut their vacation short. As selfish as that may sound! At any rate, we hung out over at my mom and dad's for th evening. We'd brought our X-Box and stuff over their house for Christmas Eve but didn't get to play it because we wound up staying at home. But we did play it on New Year's Eve and it was a lot of fun. I had a few Mike's Spiced Apple (YUM!!) and a couple of weak rum and Cokes. I can't really drink much alcohol these days. Not only do I not drink often so I've become quite the lightweight. Not to mention several of my daily medications interact with alcohol (read: I get drunker WAY faster) so just a few drinks does me in pretty quick. Which is actually kind of nice. I'm definitely a cheap bar date! Anyhow, we rang in the New Year playing pool and having a good time. We left shortly after midnight and came home to sleep.
Speaking of SLEEP... the most exciting part of 2009 happened on New Year's Eve. The Monkey and I actually slept together in the same bed all night!! We haven't slept in the same bed for three years because his snoring was just that bad. I finally bit the bullet and jumped through a dozen hoops to get him set up with a CPAP machine. The first night was horrific because his pressure setting was WAY too low and he felt like he was suffocating. But now that we have that fixed I don't even have to fight with him to put the darn thing on! We woke up early this weekend for our usual routine of cuddling and early morning nookie. Afterwards I fell back asleep. And he did as well. Imagine my surprise when I woke up and saw that he'd put his mask back on to do so! He can certainly tell the difference in how he feels. And WOW... so can I! He already has much more energy. He's been sitting down to play video games (both WoW and X-Box) without falling asleep during. I took more naps this weekend than he did! It has been absolutely incredible and I only wish we'd known years ago how good one of these machines would be for him! I have a feeling that he'll start losing weight easier now that his body is getting recouperative rest. We are both looking forward to being healthier and happier in 2010; even moreso than we were in 2009. (In fact, I've set my sights on a NEW weight loss goal. I lost a total of 33 pounds in 2009 -- about seven pounds short of my goal. My new goal for 2010 is to lose at least another 30. Definitely more if I can manage!)
So alls well that ends well. Now I'm going to go crawl into bed with my husband and go to sleep.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
flippity floppity
So, the month of October has nearly slipped away. I wish the weather would cool off and stay that way for crying out loud. We had a nice little cold spell this weekend (even a frost advisory!) but it's right back into the mid to upper 70s now. And that would be all well and good if it would drop down into the 50s or something at night but it's not getting much lower than 65°. [sigh] Why I ever moved to the south, I'll never know. (Oh, yeah. This was supposed to be a temporary situation. Funny how falling in love and getting married can change EVERYTHING.)
After the Metallica concert I went into one of my post-excitement slumps. Things like that happen to me all the time. It'll most likely happen again after Halloween but maybe I'll get lucky. Who knows. I am looking forward to our Halloween party. Even though this year I won't be able to have Jell-O shots or alcohol of any kind because I'm on a double course of antibiotics. As it turns out I wound up having a recurrance of pelvic pain with my most recent AF. Cultures showed Group B Strep but I can't see how that could cause such bad pain. I'm wondering if something else is going on. Needless to say, if it occurs again with my next AF I'll be stopping my birth control pills and asking for a different one. The pain started when I started the pill. Which is really strange to say the least but whatever. It's not the first time my body has acted out of the norm.
I was so preoccupied with the Metallica concert and we spent a small chunk of money on it that we're not doing elaborate costumes this year. The Monkey is going to dress up as a rock star and I'm going to be his groupie. Heh. I'm considering making us look zombie-fied in some way to make it more Halloween-ish. We shall see.
There is really nothing exciting in my life to speak of. My niece is turning two next month. TWO! My nephews will be 15 and 7. Soon after I'll be turning 29. Almost 30 and still no babies. [sigh] It's a good thing I know plenty of ladies that are in their 40s and having babies. We have to elect new benefits this month. VZW is changing things and will no longer be offering Cigna. I think this could be a good thing. The fertility coverage is different. The new coverage offers treatment of the underlying condition causing the infertility (meaning the PCOS, thyroid disorder, endo, and everything else) but it also covers fertility services (specifically IUI) at 50%. Which is way better than 0% obviously! It's a nice addition and will hopefully come in very handy. Someday. But someday is still pretty far away so I'm going to force myself not to think about it. At all. Ever. [sigh]
Friday I took The Monkey to have his eyes checked after he got a migraine that lasted for about four days. (Well, the migraine pain lasted about a day and a half; the residual pain continued for another two and a half days after.) The Monkey never gets headaches. Well, almost never. But, when he does, they are exclusively migraine in nature. And they are always preceded by an aura (blurry vision) and we can usually use that to get pain meds in him before the pain becomes too much to deal with. We did okay this time, but he had some trouble with bright lights and wound up wearing a hat and dark sunglasses at work. (He's doing everything in his power to keep an impeccable attendance record. It comes down to job security and raises and blah blah blah...) Being the concerned (and intuitive) wife that I am, I scheduled him an appointment with a local optometrist. It was quite the ordeal and the one that got us in was the last one on our list of in network providers. One of the nice things about our medical coverage with VZW is that we have vision coverage. And, as it turns out, said coverage is actually pretty spectacular. After The Monkey's exam (which took over an hour) the optometrist said that he is far sighted. Not horribly so but since he's getting older his eye muscles are wanting to over-compensate for his vision impairment less and less. And the subsequent muscle strain of staring at a computer screen for eight to ten hours a day at work and then coming home and playing World of Warcraft for another three or four is taking its toll. Simply put: his muscles don't care to keep up with his demands anymore. So, glasses it is. They dilated his pupils (of course) so afterwards not only did he look like he'd dropped acid (or taken a couple of hits of Ecstasy) he also had horribly blurred vision for the next few hours. He bickered and complained when we tried to get him to pick out frames. We ("we" being the nurse and me) picked out a few pair and had him model. The first pair turned out to be our favorite. And, luckily, also the cheapest. The frames were $139.99. Then we went over lense options. VSP would've paid 100% of the lens cost if we'd gone with plastic. But plastic is notoriously heavy and scratches easily. So we paid the extra $25 for the polycarbonate. Our plan paid $115 for the frames and then an additional 20% off the remaining cost. So we paid something ridiculously silly for an otherwise pricey pair of frames; $18 if I remember right. Then the $25 for the lenses; $25 for our optometrist office visit copay; $20 for our medical copay (since she looked at the vessels in his eyes to be sure that the problem wasn't something brain related). Total cost: $89. Uh... I paid $200ish for my glasses two years ago! And that's not including the multiple visits to my opthamalogist. (I have other eye 'issues' that require me to see an opthamalogist instead of an optometrist.) So I'm glad that is resolved. We're hoping the glasses get here quickly but the lady did say 10 - 14 business days. UGH. (I also paid a little extra for convenience. I ordered and paid for and walked out with my new glasses within a couple of hours.)
My life is just full of excitment. It's high time that I schedule an appointment with a new psychiatrist. And a new therapist. I should also schedule an appointment with a specialist about my elbow. I'm still dealing with quite a bit of pain in my right elbow. It's been a good five months since this started. It was getting better until about two weeks ago when it started to get bad again. I refuse to just "deal" with the pain anymore.
After the Metallica concert I went into one of my post-excitement slumps. Things like that happen to me all the time. It'll most likely happen again after Halloween but maybe I'll get lucky. Who knows. I am looking forward to our Halloween party. Even though this year I won't be able to have Jell-O shots or alcohol of any kind because I'm on a double course of antibiotics. As it turns out I wound up having a recurrance of pelvic pain with my most recent AF. Cultures showed Group B Strep but I can't see how that could cause such bad pain. I'm wondering if something else is going on. Needless to say, if it occurs again with my next AF I'll be stopping my birth control pills and asking for a different one. The pain started when I started the pill. Which is really strange to say the least but whatever. It's not the first time my body has acted out of the norm.
I was so preoccupied with the Metallica concert and we spent a small chunk of money on it that we're not doing elaborate costumes this year. The Monkey is going to dress up as a rock star and I'm going to be his groupie. Heh. I'm considering making us look zombie-fied in some way to make it more Halloween-ish. We shall see.
There is really nothing exciting in my life to speak of. My niece is turning two next month. TWO! My nephews will be 15 and 7. Soon after I'll be turning 29. Almost 30 and still no babies. [sigh] It's a good thing I know plenty of ladies that are in their 40s and having babies. We have to elect new benefits this month. VZW is changing things and will no longer be offering Cigna. I think this could be a good thing. The fertility coverage is different. The new coverage offers treatment of the underlying condition causing the infertility (meaning the PCOS, thyroid disorder, endo, and everything else) but it also covers fertility services (specifically IUI) at 50%. Which is way better than 0% obviously! It's a nice addition and will hopefully come in very handy. Someday. But someday is still pretty far away so I'm going to force myself not to think about it. At all. Ever. [sigh]
Friday I took The Monkey to have his eyes checked after he got a migraine that lasted for about four days. (Well, the migraine pain lasted about a day and a half; the residual pain continued for another two and a half days after.) The Monkey never gets headaches. Well, almost never. But, when he does, they are exclusively migraine in nature. And they are always preceded by an aura (blurry vision) and we can usually use that to get pain meds in him before the pain becomes too much to deal with. We did okay this time, but he had some trouble with bright lights and wound up wearing a hat and dark sunglasses at work. (He's doing everything in his power to keep an impeccable attendance record. It comes down to job security and raises and blah blah blah...) Being the concerned (and intuitive) wife that I am, I scheduled him an appointment with a local optometrist. It was quite the ordeal and the one that got us in was the last one on our list of in network providers. One of the nice things about our medical coverage with VZW is that we have vision coverage. And, as it turns out, said coverage is actually pretty spectacular. After The Monkey's exam (which took over an hour) the optometrist said that he is far sighted. Not horribly so but since he's getting older his eye muscles are wanting to over-compensate for his vision impairment less and less. And the subsequent muscle strain of staring at a computer screen for eight to ten hours a day at work and then coming home and playing World of Warcraft for another three or four is taking its toll. Simply put: his muscles don't care to keep up with his demands anymore. So, glasses it is. They dilated his pupils (of course) so afterwards not only did he look like he'd dropped acid (or taken a couple of hits of Ecstasy) he also had horribly blurred vision for the next few hours. He bickered and complained when we tried to get him to pick out frames. We ("we" being the nurse and me) picked out a few pair and had him model. The first pair turned out to be our favorite. And, luckily, also the cheapest. The frames were $139.99. Then we went over lense options. VSP would've paid 100% of the lens cost if we'd gone with plastic. But plastic is notoriously heavy and scratches easily. So we paid the extra $25 for the polycarbonate. Our plan paid $115 for the frames and then an additional 20% off the remaining cost. So we paid something ridiculously silly for an otherwise pricey pair of frames; $18 if I remember right. Then the $25 for the lenses; $25 for our optometrist office visit copay; $20 for our medical copay (since she looked at the vessels in his eyes to be sure that the problem wasn't something brain related). Total cost: $89. Uh... I paid $200ish for my glasses two years ago! And that's not including the multiple visits to my opthamalogist. (I have other eye 'issues' that require me to see an opthamalogist instead of an optometrist.) So I'm glad that is resolved. We're hoping the glasses get here quickly but the lady did say 10 - 14 business days. UGH. (I also paid a little extra for convenience. I ordered and paid for and walked out with my new glasses within a couple of hours.)
My life is just full of excitment. It's high time that I schedule an appointment with a new psychiatrist. And a new therapist. I should also schedule an appointment with a specialist about my elbow. I'm still dealing with quite a bit of pain in my right elbow. It's been a good five months since this started. It was getting better until about two weeks ago when it started to get bad again. I refuse to just "deal" with the pain anymore.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
TOTALLY worth it!
This entry is mostly for my benefit. I want to be able to look back at this and remember it with vivid detail.
On Sunday morning, The Monkey and I got up early. We loaded up our suitcase (which was totally too big for what was in it, but whatever) into the Alero and headed to Atlanta.
I had printed the route Google Maps suggested the night before. When The Monkey looked at the directions he asked me if I realized I was trading the mostly straight, two lane highways for winding, curvy back roads. (Well, duh, of course I didn't!) And yet, he insisted that we take my route anyway. I guess for kicks. As it turns out, we got to see some of Alabama's prettier side. It was a bit blustery on Sunday -- chilly with a tad bit of wind -- and we kept driving around curves and over hills through windswept leaves. It was a good thing we had a full tank of gas because we saw three gas stations before we finally hit I-85. And those three were, uh, many miles apart. Either way, we enjoyed this part of the drive quite a lot. Autumn weather always puts me in a good mood.
I was smart and decided not to put on [much] makeup for the drive up. The plan was to get to the hotel early enough to get showered and put on makeup before the concert. This turned out to be a very good decision because about a third of the way through the drive my eyes were starting to water profusely thanks to my fall allergies which STILL haven't let up. We hadn't seen much civilization for miles so the thought of finding a Walgreens or other pharmacy was laughable. Eventually, though, we drove into Tuskegee and sure enough, they had a CVS. We decided to stop. I bought a box of Zyrtec-D (Claritin hadn't done squat for me) and a couple of 5-Hour Energy shots. The Monkey and I both popped a Zyrtec and downed half of one of the energy shots. Half an hour later I could've easily taken a nap. So we opened the second bottle and polished it off. In a few more minutes I was back on full force mode.
Google Maps' directions were spot on for the majority of the drive. We kept a watch on my odometer and the mileage on the 'step-by-step' instructions and they were perfectly timed. The Monkey and I couldn't get over the fact that we'd taken at least nine turns -- all of them right hand turns -- but we still managed to be going north somehow. However, just when we'd thought Google Maps was KING of Internet directionage, we missed our exit off of I-85. The Monkey, being the logical little Libra that he is, told me to get off at the first Hartsfield exit. I didn't argue even though I did NOT want to be at the airport! As soon as we found a spot, we pulled over and he took over driving. (I get far too stressed out when I'm "lost" and/or in heavy traffic. And, let's face it, it's Atlanta. Even on a Sunday morning traffic was pretty heavy.) He asked for directions to I-85 North and we were on our way once again.
Only to get lost again looking for our hotel. (Another Google Maps blunder. We couldn't find "Old National Parkway" try as we may. Even the locals looked at us like we were nuts when we asked. We finally called the hotel and they gave us landmarks to follow. We were there within two minutes of hanging up. Say what you will... there's no substitution for good ol' firsthand experience. :P
Hotel check-in was a breeze. The hotel upgraded us from a single room to a two room suite. Which was wicked convenient seeing as how The Monkey and I can't sleep in the same room and actually get any sleep. (The snoring really is that bad.) So he took the fold out couch and I took the bed (which was about as comfortable as a fold out couch bed). We arrived at 2:30 PM (local time) and I had just enough time to shower and primp. Yes, I "primped" for a rock concert. And I looked pretty damn good, I think.
We decided that it would be better to venture into downtown Atlanta, find the arena, pay the $20 to park, and then walk to find a place to eat. I was craving something nice. A sit down place; not fast food. Specifically a nice steak and a baked potato. Maybe a small salad before dinner. But, not-so-much. It took us nearly an hour to find the place for a couple of reasons. First, another Google Maps blunder. They said a 'slight left' onto Olympic Centennial Parkway after getting onto Spring Street NW. They specified this instruction where there happened to be a Y intersection and we assumed the slight left was taking the left part of the Y. Silly us. As it turned out, we'd gotten off of Spring Street and headed back onto I-85. The Monkey took the next exit off the highway and we wound up somewhere very different. Oh well, at least we got to see LOTS of downtown Atlanta. :P Whoever designed downtown Atlanta obviously works for the city transit system. I cannot imagine trying to DRIVE there every day. It's a mess! A ridiculous network of one way streets. There is no 'go one block and turn around' there! But, whatever. We eventually found the parking garage and started following throngs of fellow headbangers towards the arena. The excitement and anticipation was insane. I was SOOO looking forward to this!
I'll admit to being a little irritated when I saw the size of the crowd waiting to get in. (And VERY disheartened to discover that t-shirts were, at their cheapest, $35 a piece.) I groaned at The Monkey about how people who had seated tickets should have a different entrance than the ones who wanted general admin tickets for the floor. And then what do I hear? A security guard direction the general admissions people to an entrance on the opposite side of the arena. Score one for me! Then we asked about restaurants. Our best choice was the food court in CNN Center. They didn't have steak but they did have sushi. Which, actually, was my second choice in pre-concert dining.
By then, it was 5:00 PM. Showtime was at 7:00. They were supposed to start letting people in at 5:30. The Monkey and I ate. And then sat. And waited. And waited. And waited. By 6:00 I was yawning. (My 5-Hour Energy Shot had totally worn off.) The boredom and fatigue totally eclipsed my excitement (albeit only temporarily). We left the food court around 6:15 to enter the crowded arena. Well, it looked crowded at the time but it was NOTHING compared to how crowded it was when we were leaving. Sheesh!
We got through the gates with no trouble and found our seats pretty quickly. (Lucky us, there was a bathroom right outside of our section.) We were in section 122 -- on the 'bend' of the arena -- in row B. The second row. The picture I found of our seats did not do the view we had justice at ALL. All The Monkey could say was "Damn baby. These are awesome seats!" Hell YEAH. We sat down and got comfortable. Still 45 minutes to showtime. Well, until the opening acts, anyway. We knew Metallica wouldn't be taking the stage until around 9:00 PM. I took a picture of our view with my phone and sent it out. That's when The Monkey pointed out yellow tape on the floor. We were sitting right next to where the bands entered the arena. Another stroke of pure luck! The people around us were all fantastic. Enthused but not overly (or annoyingly) so. We had a few seat jumpers but only two were trouble makers. Third stroke of luck -- a group of four cops were seated directly in front of us. They made it VERY easy to shoo away the two "home boys" that were drunk off their asses and smoking in the non-smoking arena. One of the two idiots nearly fell on top of me when he went to sit down in [somebody else's] seat next to me. If he hadn't been such a tubby little twit he might've went over the rail when The Monkey pushed him. Eventually The Monkey had words with the guy because he tried to light a second cigarette in a no smoking arena. That's when the cops said something and I took off to get security to drag them away. I'm sorry, if you bought shitty tickets to a concert, don't try to jump seats and cause problems for people who paid for GOOD seats. We didn't let them ruin our night, though.
The opening acts -- Gojira and Lamb of God -- were decent. Gojira's drummer was hitting double bass almost constantly which would've been really cool if their sound hadn't been so jacked up. The drums were about all I could hear, unfortunately. I couldn't discern the rhythm, lead, or bass guitars. And I definitely couldn't hear the vocalist. (The volume eventually got to me and I put in earplugs. I was surprised that it actually helped things sound better!) Lamb of God was okay. I like heavy metal. And screaming is okay when it's done in moderation. But it seemed like all the lead singer did was scream. And that's just not my taste in music. After a couple of songs, though, the lead singer gave props to the military. That was the first time I yelled REALLY loud. Heh.
The opening acts lasted about an hour and 15 minutes together. Stage breakdown and setup was an additional 30 minutes or so. The crowd was pretty stir crazy while they were setting up the stage for Metallica. The anticipation was palpable! Finally, after what felt like forever, the lights dimmed and The Ecstasy of Gold started playing (Metallica opens all of their shows with this song). An eruption of screams and yells from the crowd (myself included). I got chills! I am still getting chills thinking about it. A. Maz. Ing. I tried to get pictures of them walking out from my seat (they shooed us away from the railing, damnit) but managed only to get a picture of Rob Trujillo. And only the back of him. Curses. I was hoping for a close up shot of Lars or James.
They opened with That Was Just Your Life and followed immediately with The End of the Line -- both songs from Death Magnetic, the newest album. I'd done a little more research than necessary and was sure on a few of the songs they would play but they threw us a couple that I totally wasn't expecting! Ride the Lightning (from the album of the same name) came next. Then No Remorse from Kill 'Em All (their first album); this was the only song I wasn't very familiar with. They took a quick reprieve to, I'm assuming, set up the pyrotechnics for One from The Monkey's and my favorite album ...And Justice for All. Even if you're not a metal fan you should know this song. It was the first song they made a video for and released on MTV. (Which is one of my very distinct childhood memories. I remember the video very vividly. And, seeing as how I was only like nine, it was very disturbing to watch.) But, wow, it was absolutely INCREDIBLE live. I took a short video of the intro and one of the solos but the sound quality is sucky. The music and crowd were just too over powering. The intro to the song is an overture of gun fire and helicopters. Think Vietnam. And as we were hearing the shots and explosions they timed some kick as pyrotechnic blasts all around the stage. SO AWESOME. I showed my enthusiasm. Uh...a lot. They followed One with two more Death Magnetic songs -- Broken, Beat & Scarred and Cyanide -- and followed that with Sad But True from their self titled album (more commonly known as The Black Album).
Our second "surprise" of the night was Welcome Home (Sanitarium) from Master of Puppets! More chills... it's one of my favorites. Next up they played my two favorite Death Magnetic songs -- All Nightmare Long and The Day That Never Comes. I'm partial to All Nightmare Long because it had to 'grow on me'. Plus it took me several tried before I finally beat it on Hard on Guitar Hero. :P The Day That Never Comes is easily one of my favorite Metallica songs ever. It's not so hardcore; more of a ballad if you will. The followed that up with a crowd favorite (and one we were all expecting) Master of Puppets from the album of the same name. The next song was our next "surprise" -- Blackened from ...And Justice for All. Blackened is a really powerful song. The lyrics are about the destruction of the world by the human race by nuclear war. (Color our world blackened...) After Blackened they followed up with a brief bass solo from Rob. Then everything went dark and quiet. (Well, as quiet as an arena full of headbangers can get...) Then a single light came on and showed James Hetfield on a stool with his guitar and he started playing Nothing Else Matters (from The Black Album) acoustically. Eventually the rest of the band joined in. They followed that up with another Black Album favorite; Enter Sandman. I hadn't been keeping track of the number of songs they'd played up until this point but I knew it had to be getting close to the end. And, sure enough, they took another reprieve. They played the beginning of The Frayed Ends of Sanity from ...And Justice for All (which is the March of the Winkies from The Wizard of Oz) and got the crowd pumped up again. James got on the mic and asked if everyone was still around... commence lots of screaming and HELL YEAHs. ;) Then he busted out with Last Caress (a cover of the Misfits' song). Which was pretty awesome but it's only like a minute long so I felt like we might've gotten a little gypped. Then they played Hit the Lights; some more "old shit" from Kill 'Em All.
And then it was time for the closing song -- Seek & Destroy (also from Kill 'Em All). Seek & Destroy has been their closing song for live shows since their Madly in Anger with the World tour so we were expecting it. The really cool part was that they turned on all of the house lights and dropped hundreds of black beach balls (all imprinted with the Metallica logo) from the ceiling. We were too high up/far back to get a beach ball but it was awesome to watch! (And we were kind of grateful seeing as how people were fighting over them. Uh... no thanks!) After the song ended James gave the crowd props first and then Lars grabbed the mic. He said, and I quote, "We have been criss crossing this great country for the past year and I have to say this is by far the best fucking Sunday night crowd we've had yet!" It was SOOO awesome! And pretty hilarious that he used 'fuck' about five times in 30 seconds. \m/
It was just a kick ass time. If we get the opportunity, we WILL see them in concert again. They put on a hell of a show and kept the energy high all night. I enjoyed the HELL out of myself, that's for sure. (Before they played Seek & Destroy James said something to the effect of "We're going to leave here with a sore throat, maybe a sore neck, but we're all gonna leave here with big smiles on our faces!" And he was absolutely 100% right. My voice was hoarse for the next 24 hours or so afterwards and I noticed on Monday afternoon that my neck hurt. But not the usual pain I'm accustomed to; it was muscle soreness from rocking out for three hours! Sweeeeet...
The crowd leaving the arena was NUTS. I grabbed onto The Monkey's hand with a fierceness you wouldn't believe. He led us through thecattle crowd and we eventually made it outside. Into the 50° chill and RAIN. Gaah! Thankfully we'd both worn hoodies. (Which was awesome at first, because Philips Arena is a hockey arena and there is ice under the stage after all. But with an arena full of body heat and regular pyrotechnic blasts it wound up getting pretty hot.) We found our way back to the parking garage and hopped into the car and waited a good half hour for traffic to thin out enough for us to back out. Silly me hadn't printed reverse directions to get back to the hotel so we got a little lost. When we finally found our way back to the hotel (around 1:30 AM) we both crashed pretty much immediately.
I didn't sleep much. Normally I set the TV on a timer so it doesn't keep me awake but I needed the background noise to drown out The Monkey's snores from the other room. When I finally did turn the TV off (around 4:00 AM) I could hear planes (we were right next to the airport after all). The alarm jolted me awake at 8:00 AM. I took a quick shower and then The Monkey and I headed down for the free breakfast. Nothing to brag about. They had fresh make 'em yourself waffles that were really good. And it filled the void without costing us extra money. We were going to wait until check out at 11:00 but The Monkey said he was awake and ready to go. So we packed up and left early. We stopped at Walmart to buy an FM transmitter for my iPod (we had to rock out to Metallica all the way home, of course!) and then we were on our way.
I was completely ZONKED. Not even a 5-Hour Energy could bring me out of my stupor. The Monkey wanted to stop in Shorter, AL (Victoryland 777 Casino) as a side adventure. When we got there I was absolutely DELIRIOUS. I couldn't stop grinning. And I couldn't even muster the energy to talk. We found a Starbucks inside after a few minutes and I ordered a Mocha Latte with a double shot of espresso. We walked around the casino (which is full of nothing but slots) for about a half hour before we broke a $20 and started feeding some machines. We actually spent $30 but we probably lost about twice that. GRR! But we still had a good time. We got to see the greyhounds up close (they were getting weighed) and we registered for the players' club. I would've liked to play some cards but it didn't look like they offered it. At least cards aren't 100% chance!
The rest of the drive was uneventful. I was so sleepy and even though I tried ridiculously hard to stay awake I passed out after we got outside of Montgomery. I woke up just as we were pulling into town.
The entire experience was so much fun. I'm so glad we splurged on the tickets! I downloaded the concert audio from MetallicaLive.com for $9.95 when we got home. So now we can relive it over and over and over and over... whenever we want! I took something like 260 pictures! The videos I took didn't turn out very good but I'll probably upload them to YouTube at some point anyway. The photos are posted on my Facebook. Some of them are blurry and indiscernible. But there are quite a few that are just AWESOME.
On Sunday morning, The Monkey and I got up early. We loaded up our suitcase (which was totally too big for what was in it, but whatever) into the Alero and headed to Atlanta.
I had printed the route Google Maps suggested the night before. When The Monkey looked at the directions he asked me if I realized I was trading the mostly straight, two lane highways for winding, curvy back roads. (Well, duh, of course I didn't!) And yet, he insisted that we take my route anyway. I guess for kicks. As it turns out, we got to see some of Alabama's prettier side. It was a bit blustery on Sunday -- chilly with a tad bit of wind -- and we kept driving around curves and over hills through windswept leaves. It was a good thing we had a full tank of gas because we saw three gas stations before we finally hit I-85. And those three were, uh, many miles apart. Either way, we enjoyed this part of the drive quite a lot. Autumn weather always puts me in a good mood.
I was smart and decided not to put on [much] makeup for the drive up. The plan was to get to the hotel early enough to get showered and put on makeup before the concert. This turned out to be a very good decision because about a third of the way through the drive my eyes were starting to water profusely thanks to my fall allergies which STILL haven't let up. We hadn't seen much civilization for miles so the thought of finding a Walgreens or other pharmacy was laughable. Eventually, though, we drove into Tuskegee and sure enough, they had a CVS. We decided to stop. I bought a box of Zyrtec-D (Claritin hadn't done squat for me) and a couple of 5-Hour Energy shots. The Monkey and I both popped a Zyrtec and downed half of one of the energy shots. Half an hour later I could've easily taken a nap. So we opened the second bottle and polished it off. In a few more minutes I was back on full force mode.
Google Maps' directions were spot on for the majority of the drive. We kept a watch on my odometer and the mileage on the 'step-by-step' instructions and they were perfectly timed. The Monkey and I couldn't get over the fact that we'd taken at least nine turns -- all of them right hand turns -- but we still managed to be going north somehow. However, just when we'd thought Google Maps was KING of Internet directionage, we missed our exit off of I-85. The Monkey, being the logical little Libra that he is, told me to get off at the first Hartsfield exit. I didn't argue even though I did NOT want to be at the airport! As soon as we found a spot, we pulled over and he took over driving. (I get far too stressed out when I'm "lost" and/or in heavy traffic. And, let's face it, it's Atlanta. Even on a Sunday morning traffic was pretty heavy.) He asked for directions to I-85 North and we were on our way once again.
Only to get lost again looking for our hotel. (Another Google Maps blunder. We couldn't find "Old National Parkway" try as we may. Even the locals looked at us like we were nuts when we asked. We finally called the hotel and they gave us landmarks to follow. We were there within two minutes of hanging up. Say what you will... there's no substitution for good ol' firsthand experience. :P
Hotel check-in was a breeze. The hotel upgraded us from a single room to a two room suite. Which was wicked convenient seeing as how The Monkey and I can't sleep in the same room and actually get any sleep. (The snoring really is that bad.) So he took the fold out couch and I took the bed (which was about as comfortable as a fold out couch bed). We arrived at 2:30 PM (local time) and I had just enough time to shower and primp. Yes, I "primped" for a rock concert. And I looked pretty damn good, I think.
We decided that it would be better to venture into downtown Atlanta, find the arena, pay the $20 to park, and then walk to find a place to eat. I was craving something nice. A sit down place; not fast food. Specifically a nice steak and a baked potato. Maybe a small salad before dinner. But, not-so-much. It took us nearly an hour to find the place for a couple of reasons. First, another Google Maps blunder. They said a 'slight left' onto Olympic Centennial Parkway after getting onto Spring Street NW. They specified this instruction where there happened to be a Y intersection and we assumed the slight left was taking the left part of the Y. Silly us. As it turned out, we'd gotten off of Spring Street and headed back onto I-85. The Monkey took the next exit off the highway and we wound up somewhere very different. Oh well, at least we got to see LOTS of downtown Atlanta. :P Whoever designed downtown Atlanta obviously works for the city transit system. I cannot imagine trying to DRIVE there every day. It's a mess! A ridiculous network of one way streets. There is no 'go one block and turn around' there! But, whatever. We eventually found the parking garage and started following throngs of fellow headbangers towards the arena. The excitement and anticipation was insane. I was SOOO looking forward to this!
I'll admit to being a little irritated when I saw the size of the crowd waiting to get in. (And VERY disheartened to discover that t-shirts were, at their cheapest, $35 a piece.) I groaned at The Monkey about how people who had seated tickets should have a different entrance than the ones who wanted general admin tickets for the floor. And then what do I hear? A security guard direction the general admissions people to an entrance on the opposite side of the arena. Score one for me! Then we asked about restaurants. Our best choice was the food court in CNN Center. They didn't have steak but they did have sushi. Which, actually, was my second choice in pre-concert dining.
By then, it was 5:00 PM. Showtime was at 7:00. They were supposed to start letting people in at 5:30. The Monkey and I ate. And then sat. And waited. And waited. And waited. By 6:00 I was yawning. (My 5-Hour Energy Shot had totally worn off.) The boredom and fatigue totally eclipsed my excitement (albeit only temporarily). We left the food court around 6:15 to enter the crowded arena. Well, it looked crowded at the time but it was NOTHING compared to how crowded it was when we were leaving. Sheesh!
We got through the gates with no trouble and found our seats pretty quickly. (Lucky us, there was a bathroom right outside of our section.) We were in section 122 -- on the 'bend' of the arena -- in row B. The second row. The picture I found of our seats did not do the view we had justice at ALL. All The Monkey could say was "Damn baby. These are awesome seats!" Hell YEAH. We sat down and got comfortable. Still 45 minutes to showtime. Well, until the opening acts, anyway. We knew Metallica wouldn't be taking the stage until around 9:00 PM. I took a picture of our view with my phone and sent it out. That's when The Monkey pointed out yellow tape on the floor. We were sitting right next to where the bands entered the arena. Another stroke of pure luck! The people around us were all fantastic. Enthused but not overly (or annoyingly) so. We had a few seat jumpers but only two were trouble makers. Third stroke of luck -- a group of four cops were seated directly in front of us. They made it VERY easy to shoo away the two "home boys" that were drunk off their asses and smoking in the non-smoking arena. One of the two idiots nearly fell on top of me when he went to sit down in [somebody else's] seat next to me. If he hadn't been such a tubby little twit he might've went over the rail when The Monkey pushed him. Eventually The Monkey had words with the guy because he tried to light a second cigarette in a no smoking arena. That's when the cops said something and I took off to get security to drag them away. I'm sorry, if you bought shitty tickets to a concert, don't try to jump seats and cause problems for people who paid for GOOD seats. We didn't let them ruin our night, though.
The opening acts -- Gojira and Lamb of God -- were decent. Gojira's drummer was hitting double bass almost constantly which would've been really cool if their sound hadn't been so jacked up. The drums were about all I could hear, unfortunately. I couldn't discern the rhythm, lead, or bass guitars. And I definitely couldn't hear the vocalist. (The volume eventually got to me and I put in earplugs. I was surprised that it actually helped things sound better!) Lamb of God was okay. I like heavy metal. And screaming is okay when it's done in moderation. But it seemed like all the lead singer did was scream. And that's just not my taste in music. After a couple of songs, though, the lead singer gave props to the military. That was the first time I yelled REALLY loud. Heh.
The opening acts lasted about an hour and 15 minutes together. Stage breakdown and setup was an additional 30 minutes or so. The crowd was pretty stir crazy while they were setting up the stage for Metallica. The anticipation was palpable! Finally, after what felt like forever, the lights dimmed and The Ecstasy of Gold started playing (Metallica opens all of their shows with this song). An eruption of screams and yells from the crowd (myself included). I got chills! I am still getting chills thinking about it. A. Maz. Ing. I tried to get pictures of them walking out from my seat (they shooed us away from the railing, damnit) but managed only to get a picture of Rob Trujillo. And only the back of him. Curses. I was hoping for a close up shot of Lars or James.
They opened with That Was Just Your Life and followed immediately with The End of the Line -- both songs from Death Magnetic, the newest album. I'd done a little more research than necessary and was sure on a few of the songs they would play but they threw us a couple that I totally wasn't expecting! Ride the Lightning (from the album of the same name) came next. Then No Remorse from Kill 'Em All (their first album); this was the only song I wasn't very familiar with. They took a quick reprieve to, I'm assuming, set up the pyrotechnics for One from The Monkey's and my favorite album ...And Justice for All. Even if you're not a metal fan you should know this song. It was the first song they made a video for and released on MTV. (Which is one of my very distinct childhood memories. I remember the video very vividly. And, seeing as how I was only like nine, it was very disturbing to watch.) But, wow, it was absolutely INCREDIBLE live. I took a short video of the intro and one of the solos but the sound quality is sucky. The music and crowd were just too over powering. The intro to the song is an overture of gun fire and helicopters. Think Vietnam. And as we were hearing the shots and explosions they timed some kick as pyrotechnic blasts all around the stage. SO AWESOME. I showed my enthusiasm. Uh...a lot. They followed One with two more Death Magnetic songs -- Broken, Beat & Scarred and Cyanide -- and followed that with Sad But True from their self titled album (more commonly known as The Black Album).
Our second "surprise" of the night was Welcome Home (Sanitarium) from Master of Puppets! More chills... it's one of my favorites. Next up they played my two favorite Death Magnetic songs -- All Nightmare Long and The Day That Never Comes. I'm partial to All Nightmare Long because it had to 'grow on me'. Plus it took me several tried before I finally beat it on Hard on Guitar Hero. :P The Day That Never Comes is easily one of my favorite Metallica songs ever. It's not so hardcore; more of a ballad if you will. The followed that up with a crowd favorite (and one we were all expecting) Master of Puppets from the album of the same name. The next song was our next "surprise" -- Blackened from ...And Justice for All. Blackened is a really powerful song. The lyrics are about the destruction of the world by the human race by nuclear war. (Color our world blackened...) After Blackened they followed up with a brief bass solo from Rob. Then everything went dark and quiet. (Well, as quiet as an arena full of headbangers can get...) Then a single light came on and showed James Hetfield on a stool with his guitar and he started playing Nothing Else Matters (from The Black Album) acoustically. Eventually the rest of the band joined in. They followed that up with another Black Album favorite; Enter Sandman. I hadn't been keeping track of the number of songs they'd played up until this point but I knew it had to be getting close to the end. And, sure enough, they took another reprieve. They played the beginning of The Frayed Ends of Sanity from ...And Justice for All (which is the March of the Winkies from The Wizard of Oz) and got the crowd pumped up again. James got on the mic and asked if everyone was still around... commence lots of screaming and HELL YEAHs. ;) Then he busted out with Last Caress (a cover of the Misfits' song). Which was pretty awesome but it's only like a minute long so I felt like we might've gotten a little gypped. Then they played Hit the Lights; some more "old shit" from Kill 'Em All.
And then it was time for the closing song -- Seek & Destroy (also from Kill 'Em All). Seek & Destroy has been their closing song for live shows since their Madly in Anger with the World tour so we were expecting it. The really cool part was that they turned on all of the house lights and dropped hundreds of black beach balls (all imprinted with the Metallica logo) from the ceiling. We were too high up/far back to get a beach ball but it was awesome to watch! (And we were kind of grateful seeing as how people were fighting over them. Uh... no thanks!) After the song ended James gave the crowd props first and then Lars grabbed the mic. He said, and I quote, "We have been criss crossing this great country for the past year and I have to say this is by far the best fucking Sunday night crowd we've had yet!" It was SOOO awesome! And pretty hilarious that he used 'fuck' about five times in 30 seconds. \m/
It was just a kick ass time. If we get the opportunity, we WILL see them in concert again. They put on a hell of a show and kept the energy high all night. I enjoyed the HELL out of myself, that's for sure. (Before they played Seek & Destroy James said something to the effect of "We're going to leave here with a sore throat, maybe a sore neck, but we're all gonna leave here with big smiles on our faces!" And he was absolutely 100% right. My voice was hoarse for the next 24 hours or so afterwards and I noticed on Monday afternoon that my neck hurt. But not the usual pain I'm accustomed to; it was muscle soreness from rocking out for three hours! Sweeeeet...
The crowd leaving the arena was NUTS. I grabbed onto The Monkey's hand with a fierceness you wouldn't believe. He led us through the
I didn't sleep much. Normally I set the TV on a timer so it doesn't keep me awake but I needed the background noise to drown out The Monkey's snores from the other room. When I finally did turn the TV off (around 4:00 AM) I could hear planes (we were right next to the airport after all). The alarm jolted me awake at 8:00 AM. I took a quick shower and then The Monkey and I headed down for the free breakfast. Nothing to brag about. They had fresh make 'em yourself waffles that were really good. And it filled the void without costing us extra money. We were going to wait until check out at 11:00 but The Monkey said he was awake and ready to go. So we packed up and left early. We stopped at Walmart to buy an FM transmitter for my iPod (we had to rock out to Metallica all the way home, of course!) and then we were on our way.
I was completely ZONKED. Not even a 5-Hour Energy could bring me out of my stupor. The Monkey wanted to stop in Shorter, AL (Victoryland 777 Casino) as a side adventure. When we got there I was absolutely DELIRIOUS. I couldn't stop grinning. And I couldn't even muster the energy to talk. We found a Starbucks inside after a few minutes and I ordered a Mocha Latte with a double shot of espresso. We walked around the casino (which is full of nothing but slots) for about a half hour before we broke a $20 and started feeding some machines. We actually spent $30 but we probably lost about twice that. GRR! But we still had a good time. We got to see the greyhounds up close (they were getting weighed) and we registered for the players' club. I would've liked to play some cards but it didn't look like they offered it. At least cards aren't 100% chance!
The rest of the drive was uneventful. I was so sleepy and even though I tried ridiculously hard to stay awake I passed out after we got outside of Montgomery. I woke up just as we were pulling into town.
The entire experience was so much fun. I'm so glad we splurged on the tickets! I downloaded the concert audio from MetallicaLive.com for $9.95 when we got home. So now we can relive it over and over and over and over... whenever we want! I took something like 260 pictures! The videos I took didn't turn out very good but I'll probably upload them to YouTube at some point anyway. The photos are posted on my Facebook. Some of them are blurry and indiscernible. But there are quite a few that are just AWESOME.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
living in the moment
I have a bad, bad tendency to live my life in moments. Not little, insignifcant moments but BIG and potentially life altering moments. Everything in between becomes dismissable. Which is a shame because life isn't always about the BIG moments.
I think this is why I don't write as much anymore. I don't really have anything to say unless something exciting is going on. And even then I find it difficult to write because I get so caught up that I sort of get lost for words.
The holidays are coming up. I am sad to think that we may truly have to hide under a rock. Or run away. So people don't buy us gifts and we aren't expected to buy anyone else gifts. Last year we didn't have the money but we had the credit and that is what we used. But as it stands, every single solitary credit card we have is maxed out. Or nearly maxed out. It's a very uncomfortable feeling. I miss the days when I was absolutely TERRIFIED of credit cards. I miss the days where I was totally and completely 100% debt free. Now I'm barely treading water with the credit cards. And my six month grace period on my student loans ends this month. Now I have to do a mad dash to call everyone and convince them that I am unable to pay my loans at this time and request a deferrment. Honestly, that's not the part that scares me. The part that scares me is the amount of interest $60,000 can accrue in a mere year's time. It almost makes me want to feign death. Does the government forgive student loan debt after you die? I am happy to say, however, that as of February 2010, we OWN two cars. Two cars that have been very reliable over the past five years. Let's hope they STAY that way.
I'm still finding it a bit hard to believe that another year is nearly over. I keep thinking of a former coworker that always used to tell me the older you get the quicker time seems to pass. I find that it becomes truer with every passing year. The Monkey and I are watching the kids for my sister this evening. They went to visit my sister's best friend in Georgia. (The family was there for a funeral and it's basically "right around the corner" so she went to show support.) Madison is growing up so quickly. It was getting close to her bedtime. She gave me a fit about putting clothes on (she, uh...likes being naked) but once she was in her jammies (which I tried to hype up as much as possible since they were new big girl jammies) she was fine. I sat with her in the glider and started scrolling through all the pictures on my phone. I have quite a few of my sister on there and every time we came to one I said "Who's that?" and she'd grin really big and say "Dada!" I couldn't help but laugh and say "No, that's MomMom." Then we'd come across a picture of me and she'd say "Oh! MomMom!" Once again, laughter and then correction. (She also called a picture of her Aunt Desirée 'MomMom' too.) I also have quite a few pictures of her in there. I came across one I took when I first got my phone (in late January) and was kind of amazed how much she's changed. And my GOSH how much hair she's gotten! I looked at a picture of her when she was about six months old she was SO bald. And she pretty much stayed that way until she was well over a year. But now.. it seems her hair is growing like wild fire. I kept brushing it out of her eyes to no avail. She needs a "pretties" in her hair to keep it out of her face but it's quite a feat getting her to keep any kind of bow, barette, or rubberband in her hair. She is cute as a button, though. We still can't decide what color her eyes are. They are definitely NOT the crystal-clear blue that my nephews and niece all have. But they are not the distinct green that my sister has, either. I think she's going to have eyes like mine. The kind that change color. All of my identification has 'blue' as my eye color but anyone that looks me in the eye will tell me they are more green. Ever since my sister found out she was pregnant with my oldest nephew I wanted her to have a green-eyed little girl. Maybe she finally does.
I've been on birth control for nearly two months now. I can't say I'm loving it. Having PCOS means my body chemistry is bass ackwards. The majority of women gain weight on the pill -- I've always lost weight. But not so much this time around. I'd like to go back on Yasmin but all of the FDA warnings and the class action suits have me scared. I'd prefer not to have a heart attack or stroke or DVT, thanks very much. But man this birth control pill is horrendous. I seem to be retaining a tremendous amount of water. I've gained about eight pounds. (Okay, some of that can easily be attributed to my less-than-desirable eating habits while in Pennsylvania, but come on already!) But I think the worst part of it has been the headaches and the incessantly aching BOOBS. I have never experienced this sort of soreness in the twins. EVER. They hurt so much that I sometimes flinch when The Monkey...uh...goes to play with them. :P It's ridiculous. The one good thing I have to say is my skin. Oh MAN does my skin look fabulous! I still have the stray pimple here and there (in fact, I'm nursing one on my chin at the moment) but the horrendous breakouts that I was having are a non-issue since I started taking the pill. It didn't even take a full pack to see the positive effects! So I'm kind of on the fence about the whole thing. I'm supposed to go back and see my RE to have all my levels rechecked and such. I think I'll talk to the nurse about a different type or brand.
I've taken a recent interest in serious cooking. I've been experimenting with a few of Alton Brown's recipes. I'm planning on trying out his Carrot Cake recipe for The Monkey's birthday cake. (Did you know that Carrot Cake is really more of a muffin than a cake? If not, now you do, and you should totally feel compelled to now have a slice of Carrot Cake for breakfast completely and totally guilt free.) Speaking of Pumpkin... oh... wait. Well, whatever. I'm craving a Pumpkin Spice Latte like crazy! I could get my "fix" right here at home if International Delights and Coffeemate would hurry up and flood the stores with the holiday creamers! Mmm... Gingerbread and Pumpkin Pie.
I feel a little better now. Having put some words to "paper" and have them actually make some sort of sense. And have them be about the more mundane aspects of my life rather than the BIG moments. One of these days I will take the time to resize and upload all of my pictures from our trip to Pennsylvania. I have a lovely one of my mom, dad, stepmom, brothers, sisters, and me together for the first time that I really need to post. But part of me feels obligated to explain why that picture is so incredibly special. I hardly speak of my childhood -- mostly because I don't remember much -- but at the very least I feel the need to explain how my family wound up the way it is.
The next "BIG MOMENT" in my life is the Metallica concert. I've never actually been to a concert. (Well, okay, I'll fess up to having been to a New Kids on the Block concert at age 10. Hey, it was sponsored by our church congregation. This is one of the funny things about my memory. I have almost no recollection of the concert itself. The one thing I do remember is when the pastor asked me in front of the entire church congregation what my favorite band was I instictively replied "New Kids on the Block" even though, at the time, my favorite band had to be Guns -N- Roses. Heh. Once a rocker, always a rocker, I guess.) The Metallica concert has me filled the brim with excitement. I've even had a few dreams about it. One I refuse to go into detail about because...er...it might make my husband jealous. And I would hate to see him have a change of heart about his favorite band of all time. The most recent was last night. I fell asleep listening to my iPod -- Metallica, of course -- and it lead to a dream about the actual concert. But just as it started to get good (I was making my way towards the stage) I was somehow back at home on the couch. And The Monkey walked in the door and started talking to me and all I could hear was LOUD music playing. Silly me...suddenly I remembered my earbuds and removed them. But I still couldn't hear what The Monkey was saying! I immediately started crying and panicking over losing my hearing because of a rock concert. Then I woke up. To loud music playing in my ears (No Leaf Clover). I pulled my actual earbuds out of my ears and was relieved that I could still hear. Oddly enough, The Monkey walked in the door right at that time, practically mirroring my dream. [Cue theme to The Twilight Zone]
Buying concert tickets is no easy task. Or, it wasn't for me. Why didn't anyone warn me about Service Fees?? I got all excited over a pair of tickets that were going to cost us $200 for damn good seats only to find out after I went to purchase them that with Service Fees and shipping it was going to cost $300. Eh. I wound up getting some really excellent seats (which I believe I posted about previously). Second [seated] row. Definitely not too shabby. Finding a hotel wasn't much easier. I was agonizing over a cheap hotel and driving to the arena and paying for parking or getting a hotel close to a MARTA stop so we'd only have to pay $8.00 for transportation to and from the arena. Ultimately, the fact that I am a big fat wussy made the decision for me. I booked a hotel near Hartfield Airport. It was relatively inexpensive. We won't have to venture into the city of Atlanta until we absolutely have to. It had excellent customer ratings. And it's only 12ish miles from Philips Arena. (After doing some reading, I decided that I did NOT want to be on public transit at 1:00 AM basically broadcasting TOURIST to every passerby. Especially since we wouldn't be able to carry anything defensive like mace. They don't allow those sorts of things in the concert venue.) I also wasn't keen on either walking to/from the hotel to/from the nearest MARTA station OR parking my car at the free lot at a MARTA station where it would be, for many hours, unattended and quite vulnerable. It would be my luck that some asshole would try to break in it or something. I hate the thought of the $20 parking fee for the garage at CNN Center but I guess it's a small price to pay for peace of mind.
And now that all of the important major details are in order, I can worry about the silly stuff. Like what to wear and how to do my makeup. And whether I or not I want to bring my camera (on which I have NOT mastered the night setting) or borrow my mom's or sister's. And if I do decide to borrow, will I need to look at possibly purchasing an extra memory card. (I would like to take a video clip or two.) Decisions, decisions. Right now the, uh, wardrobe and makeup are taking precedence. I know for sure it's going to be a 'jeans and t-shirt' kind of thing but my problem is what jeans and what shirt. But hey, I have three weeks to think about it, right?
I think this is why I don't write as much anymore. I don't really have anything to say unless something exciting is going on. And even then I find it difficult to write because I get so caught up that I sort of get lost for words.
The holidays are coming up. I am sad to think that we may truly have to hide under a rock. Or run away. So people don't buy us gifts and we aren't expected to buy anyone else gifts. Last year we didn't have the money but we had the credit and that is what we used. But as it stands, every single solitary credit card we have is maxed out. Or nearly maxed out. It's a very uncomfortable feeling. I miss the days when I was absolutely TERRIFIED of credit cards. I miss the days where I was totally and completely 100% debt free. Now I'm barely treading water with the credit cards. And my six month grace period on my student loans ends this month. Now I have to do a mad dash to call everyone and convince them that I am unable to pay my loans at this time and request a deferrment. Honestly, that's not the part that scares me. The part that scares me is the amount of interest $60,000 can accrue in a mere year's time. It almost makes me want to feign death. Does the government forgive student loan debt after you die? I am happy to say, however, that as of February 2010, we OWN two cars. Two cars that have been very reliable over the past five years. Let's hope they STAY that way.
I'm still finding it a bit hard to believe that another year is nearly over. I keep thinking of a former coworker that always used to tell me the older you get the quicker time seems to pass. I find that it becomes truer with every passing year. The Monkey and I are watching the kids for my sister this evening. They went to visit my sister's best friend in Georgia. (The family was there for a funeral and it's basically "right around the corner" so she went to show support.) Madison is growing up so quickly. It was getting close to her bedtime. She gave me a fit about putting clothes on (she, uh...likes being naked) but once she was in her jammies (which I tried to hype up as much as possible since they were new big girl jammies) she was fine. I sat with her in the glider and started scrolling through all the pictures on my phone. I have quite a few of my sister on there and every time we came to one I said "Who's that?" and she'd grin really big and say "Dada!" I couldn't help but laugh and say "No, that's MomMom." Then we'd come across a picture of me and she'd say "Oh! MomMom!" Once again, laughter and then correction. (She also called a picture of her Aunt Desirée 'MomMom' too.) I also have quite a few pictures of her in there. I came across one I took when I first got my phone (in late January) and was kind of amazed how much she's changed. And my GOSH how much hair she's gotten! I looked at a picture of her when she was about six months old she was SO bald. And she pretty much stayed that way until she was well over a year. But now.. it seems her hair is growing like wild fire. I kept brushing it out of her eyes to no avail. She needs a "pretties" in her hair to keep it out of her face but it's quite a feat getting her to keep any kind of bow, barette, or rubberband in her hair. She is cute as a button, though. We still can't decide what color her eyes are. They are definitely NOT the crystal-clear blue that my nephews and niece all have. But they are not the distinct green that my sister has, either. I think she's going to have eyes like mine. The kind that change color. All of my identification has 'blue' as my eye color but anyone that looks me in the eye will tell me they are more green. Ever since my sister found out she was pregnant with my oldest nephew I wanted her to have a green-eyed little girl. Maybe she finally does.
I've been on birth control for nearly two months now. I can't say I'm loving it. Having PCOS means my body chemistry is bass ackwards. The majority of women gain weight on the pill -- I've always lost weight. But not so much this time around. I'd like to go back on Yasmin but all of the FDA warnings and the class action suits have me scared. I'd prefer not to have a heart attack or stroke or DVT, thanks very much. But man this birth control pill is horrendous. I seem to be retaining a tremendous amount of water. I've gained about eight pounds. (Okay, some of that can easily be attributed to my less-than-desirable eating habits while in Pennsylvania, but come on already!) But I think the worst part of it has been the headaches and the incessantly aching BOOBS. I have never experienced this sort of soreness in the twins. EVER. They hurt so much that I sometimes flinch when The Monkey...uh...goes to play with them. :P It's ridiculous. The one good thing I have to say is my skin. Oh MAN does my skin look fabulous! I still have the stray pimple here and there (in fact, I'm nursing one on my chin at the moment) but the horrendous breakouts that I was having are a non-issue since I started taking the pill. It didn't even take a full pack to see the positive effects! So I'm kind of on the fence about the whole thing. I'm supposed to go back and see my RE to have all my levels rechecked and such. I think I'll talk to the nurse about a different type or brand.
I've taken a recent interest in serious cooking. I've been experimenting with a few of Alton Brown's recipes. I'm planning on trying out his Carrot Cake recipe for The Monkey's birthday cake. (Did you know that Carrot Cake is really more of a muffin than a cake? If not, now you do, and you should totally feel compelled to now have a slice of Carrot Cake for breakfast completely and totally guilt free.) Speaking of Pumpkin... oh... wait. Well, whatever. I'm craving a Pumpkin Spice Latte like crazy! I could get my "fix" right here at home if International Delights and Coffeemate would hurry up and flood the stores with the holiday creamers! Mmm... Gingerbread and Pumpkin Pie.
I feel a little better now. Having put some words to "paper" and have them actually make some sort of sense. And have them be about the more mundane aspects of my life rather than the BIG moments. One of these days I will take the time to resize and upload all of my pictures from our trip to Pennsylvania. I have a lovely one of my mom, dad, stepmom, brothers, sisters, and me together for the first time that I really need to post. But part of me feels obligated to explain why that picture is so incredibly special. I hardly speak of my childhood -- mostly because I don't remember much -- but at the very least I feel the need to explain how my family wound up the way it is.
The next "BIG MOMENT" in my life is the Metallica concert. I've never actually been to a concert. (Well, okay, I'll fess up to having been to a New Kids on the Block concert at age 10. Hey, it was sponsored by our church congregation. This is one of the funny things about my memory. I have almost no recollection of the concert itself. The one thing I do remember is when the pastor asked me in front of the entire church congregation what my favorite band was I instictively replied "New Kids on the Block" even though, at the time, my favorite band had to be Guns -N- Roses. Heh. Once a rocker, always a rocker, I guess.) The Metallica concert has me filled the brim with excitement. I've even had a few dreams about it. One I refuse to go into detail about because...er...it might make my husband jealous. And I would hate to see him have a change of heart about his favorite band of all time. The most recent was last night. I fell asleep listening to my iPod -- Metallica, of course -- and it lead to a dream about the actual concert. But just as it started to get good (I was making my way towards the stage) I was somehow back at home on the couch. And The Monkey walked in the door and started talking to me and all I could hear was LOUD music playing. Silly me...suddenly I remembered my earbuds and removed them. But I still couldn't hear what The Monkey was saying! I immediately started crying and panicking over losing my hearing because of a rock concert. Then I woke up. To loud music playing in my ears (No Leaf Clover). I pulled my actual earbuds out of my ears and was relieved that I could still hear. Oddly enough, The Monkey walked in the door right at that time, practically mirroring my dream. [Cue theme to The Twilight Zone]
Buying concert tickets is no easy task. Or, it wasn't for me. Why didn't anyone warn me about Service Fees?? I got all excited over a pair of tickets that were going to cost us $200 for damn good seats only to find out after I went to purchase them that with Service Fees and shipping it was going to cost $300. Eh. I wound up getting some really excellent seats (which I believe I posted about previously). Second [seated] row. Definitely not too shabby. Finding a hotel wasn't much easier. I was agonizing over a cheap hotel and driving to the arena and paying for parking or getting a hotel close to a MARTA stop so we'd only have to pay $8.00 for transportation to and from the arena. Ultimately, the fact that I am a big fat wussy made the decision for me. I booked a hotel near Hartfield Airport. It was relatively inexpensive. We won't have to venture into the city of Atlanta until we absolutely have to. It had excellent customer ratings. And it's only 12ish miles from Philips Arena. (After doing some reading, I decided that I did NOT want to be on public transit at 1:00 AM basically broadcasting TOURIST to every passerby. Especially since we wouldn't be able to carry anything defensive like mace. They don't allow those sorts of things in the concert venue.) I also wasn't keen on either walking to/from the hotel to/from the nearest MARTA station OR parking my car at the free lot at a MARTA station where it would be, for many hours, unattended and quite vulnerable. It would be my luck that some asshole would try to break in it or something. I hate the thought of the $20 parking fee for the garage at CNN Center but I guess it's a small price to pay for peace of mind.
And now that all of the important major details are in order, I can worry about the silly stuff. Like what to wear and how to do my makeup. And whether I or not I want to bring my camera (on which I have NOT mastered the night setting) or borrow my mom's or sister's. And if I do decide to borrow, will I need to look at possibly purchasing an extra memory card. (I would like to take a video clip or two.) Decisions, decisions. Right now the, uh, wardrobe and makeup are taking precedence. I know for sure it's going to be a 'jeans and t-shirt' kind of thing but my problem is what jeans and what shirt. But hey, I have three weeks to think about it, right?
Thursday, September 10, 2009
it's official...
After three "gruelling" days of scouring the Internets, we finally settled on a pair of tickets for Metallica! We'll be in the SECOND ROW!! (Since we decided to go to the Atlanta show instead of the Tampa show, we got to spend a little more on tickets since we're saving money in gas/hotel.)
I am super excited! Going out of my mind, even! Only three weeks, three days to go! The Monkey's birthday is on the 26th. I'm planning on baking a carrot cake. Either that or German Chocolate cake. Because he's quite fond of both.
And, for your viewing pleasure... here is a look at what our seats for the concert will be like! We'll be in the row with the red Xs. Did I mention that I was EXCITED!?!
I am super excited! Going out of my mind, even! Only three weeks, three days to go! The Monkey's birthday is on the 26th. I'm planning on baking a carrot cake. Either that or German Chocolate cake. Because he's quite fond of both.
And, for your viewing pleasure... here is a look at what our seats for the concert will be like! We'll be in the row with the red Xs. Did I mention that I was EXCITED!?!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
tear the map and shoot the sign*
My trip to Pennsylvania sort of did a number on our finances. I helped pay for food and gas. And I bought lottery tickets in every place that sold them (we didn't win, obviously). To be honest, I didn't do much erroneous shopping. I bought a couple of $5 tops at Old Navy along with a couple of tank tops. That went on my Old Navy card and cost me a whopping $25. (I wound up with four shirts and three tanks.) At any rate, once we got back home I went into a sort of funk. I didn't feel like doing much of anything which included grocery shopping and cooking. We ate out a lot for the first couple of weeks after I returned. Money down the drain. I hate eating out!
I priced Metallica tickets after I got back and really wasn't sure if I should purchase them. The Monkey has been pretty wishy washy about it, too. So I left Well Enough alone and hadn't thought about it at all for a couple of weeks.
Then, the other night, I had a crazy vivid dream starring...ehem...James Hetfield -- lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Metallica. It was an interesting dream. I'm not sure how my brain managed to concoct such vividry but the whole dream was full color, surround sound... the works. The best kind of dream.
When I woke up I immediately checked our bank account. We're not doing too shabby and The Monkey should get around a $200 bonus at the end of the month. I just can't see passing up this opportunity. I really can't. Metallica has been around for a long, long time. They've been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. They are well within my top five favorite bands and The Monkey's favorite band of all time.
So, after a look at our account, I began scouring the Internet for the cheapest tickets humanly possible. The cheapest I could find were around $80 a piece. But there were a couple of problems with these tickets. When I first found out that they'd be [semi] local I told myself that I didn't care how crappy the seats were, I just wanted to go to a concert and see them live! The Monkey agreed. But after much careful research, I learned that St. Pete Times Forum (Tampa, FL) is, primarily, a sports arena. They host mostly hockey games from what I gather. For whatever reason (perhaps Metallica's sheer popularity) they are hosting the concert as an "in the round" setup. Meaning the stage will be positioned in the center of the arena floor. The major problem with that is not knowing which side of the stadium the band will be facing. It would really suck to be looking at the back of their heads for the entire show. Further research brought me to a nifty site called SeatData. The site gives you an estimated view from any given section of the venue. The tickets I priced were for Section 311 (read: nosebleeds). As you can see from the photo, the view is less than desirable. Not to mention we're still unsure whether or not we'll be on the "right side" of the venue.
GRR.
The Monkey has been fairly adament about going to see them on Saturday in Tampa, FL vs. Sunday in Atlanta, GA. Despite the fact that we'd only have to stay overnight ONE night vs. TWO nights. Despite the fact that Tampa is almost twice as far from us as Atlanta. All because he doesn't want to ask for a day off, especially a Monday.
Well I say to HELL with that. We can spend less money, total, if we go see them in Atlanta and still get MUCH better seats! So now I'm talking to A (The Monkey's boss) about giving him October 5th off so we can go. He's giving plenty of notice so I don't see why it would be a problem. And he has the leave time also.
It's becoming harder and harder to resist the urge to purchase tickets. I just cannot see passing up, what may very well be, the opportunity of a lifetime. Who knows if they'll release another album. And, if they do, who knows if they'll go on tour again? I'm especially excited after seeing what they've been playing at previous shows on this tour. It doesn't seem to be favored much, but I'm crossing my fingers that they'll play Fade to Black.
So provided The Monkey is able to get October 5th off, I think we'll definitely be going. Yes. And I am muchly excited!
*Metallica - Carpe Diem Baby
I priced Metallica tickets after I got back and really wasn't sure if I should purchase them. The Monkey has been pretty wishy washy about it, too. So I left Well Enough alone and hadn't thought about it at all for a couple of weeks.
Then, the other night, I had a crazy vivid dream starring...ehem...James Hetfield -- lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Metallica. It was an interesting dream. I'm not sure how my brain managed to concoct such vividry but the whole dream was full color, surround sound... the works. The best kind of dream.
When I woke up I immediately checked our bank account. We're not doing too shabby and The Monkey should get around a $200 bonus at the end of the month. I just can't see passing up this opportunity. I really can't. Metallica has been around for a long, long time. They've been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. They are well within my top five favorite bands and The Monkey's favorite band of all time.
So, after a look at our account, I began scouring the Internet for the cheapest tickets humanly possible. The cheapest I could find were around $80 a piece. But there were a couple of problems with these tickets. When I first found out that they'd be [semi] local I told myself that I didn't care how crappy the seats were, I just wanted to go to a concert and see them live! The Monkey agreed. But after much careful research, I learned that St. Pete Times Forum (Tampa, FL) is, primarily, a sports arena. They host mostly hockey games from what I gather. For whatever reason (perhaps Metallica's sheer popularity) they are hosting the concert as an "in the round" setup. Meaning the stage will be positioned in the center of the arena floor. The major problem with that is not knowing which side of the stadium the band will be facing. It would really suck to be looking at the back of their heads for the entire show. Further research brought me to a nifty site called SeatData. The site gives you an estimated view from any given section of the venue. The tickets I priced were for Section 311 (read: nosebleeds). As you can see from the photo, the view is less than desirable. Not to mention we're still unsure whether or not we'll be on the "right side" of the venue.
GRR.
The Monkey has been fairly adament about going to see them on Saturday in Tampa, FL vs. Sunday in Atlanta, GA. Despite the fact that we'd only have to stay overnight ONE night vs. TWO nights. Despite the fact that Tampa is almost twice as far from us as Atlanta. All because he doesn't want to ask for a day off, especially a Monday.
Well I say to HELL with that. We can spend less money, total, if we go see them in Atlanta and still get MUCH better seats! So now I'm talking to A (The Monkey's boss) about giving him October 5th off so we can go. He's giving plenty of notice so I don't see why it would be a problem. And he has the leave time also.
It's becoming harder and harder to resist the urge to purchase tickets. I just cannot see passing up, what may very well be, the opportunity of a lifetime. Who knows if they'll release another album. And, if they do, who knows if they'll go on tour again? I'm especially excited after seeing what they've been playing at previous shows on this tour. It doesn't seem to be favored much, but I'm crossing my fingers that they'll play Fade to Black.
So provided The Monkey is able to get October 5th off, I think we'll definitely be going. Yes. And I am muchly excited!
*Metallica - Carpe Diem Baby
Thursday, July 23, 2009
enjoy the silence? not so much.
My sister and the rest of the family left for Panama City Beach on Saturday. I've basically been trying to convince myself for the last week and a half that I really didn't care that I wouldn't be able to go down to the beach with them. Not even for a quick day trip. After all, PCB is so overrated, anyway. And we didn't have the money. And blah blah blahbitty blah. But, sure enough, when the house cleared out around noon on Saturday I was crestfallen. Sad, even. I guess I really wanted to see the Emerald Coast after all.
The Monkey isn't as thick as he sometimes lets on. I was sullen most of Saturday afternoon. Not even the Spongebob Spongebash marathon was cheering me up. That's when The Monkey gave me surprise, middle-of-the-afternoon-the-house-is-completely-devoid-of-lifeforms-that-don't-walk-on-all-fours-be-as-loud-as-you-want sex. Which, I'll admit, did cheer me up. But what really made my day was when he said if we had the $20 it would cost for gas that we should go ahead and make the trip down to PCB for the afternoon. At least we could get some sun and get our fill of the beach. (Not to mention SALT WATER TAFFY!)
We got up early Sunday and got to PCB by 11:00 AM. Naturally, the weather was less than cooperative. We would get hit with the 20% chance of showers. [eyeroll] But we got to swim for a couple of hours. And we hung out with my mom in my sister's condo for another hour. Then we headed to Pier Park and picked up a little over a POUND of Salt Water Taffy for yours truly and headed home. (I am ashamed to admit that the pound of taffy was gone within 48 hours. Er...maybe less.
What made the whole trip go sour for me was not the less-than-desirable weather, though. No, it was the fact that upon our return, The Monkey became ill. Fluids coming from both ends. YUK. We had a bit of a scare when his poo because the consistency of coffee grounds. Thankfully the doctor said it was nothing more than a stomach bug (even though our GP sent us to a surgeon to find this out and for several hours I was on razor's edge thinking The Monkey was going to be having an emergency colonoscopy). He was much better by Tuesday evening. His blood pressure was close to normal (130/80) and he's already dropped 10 pounds (though I'm not sure how much of that was mere fluid loss). He's perfectly fine today and back on solid food again. We had tortellini and garlic bread for supper tonight after living on soup and crackers for the past two nights.
The house is too quiet. My sister's poor dog was depressed the first two days they were gone. He barely ate and only came down from his bed upstairs to go outside. But he's been spending much more time downstairs since Tuesday. In fact, he won't leave me alone!
The week has been boooooooring. The Monkey has to work, of course, so I'm home alone all day. As tempted as I've been, I have not been sleeping until noon, though. I spent some time over at my parents' house and ran errands. At night, The Monkey and I have been enjoying oodles of DVR'd movies from the pay channels. My sister pays for Cinemax, Showtime, and HBO but they hardly ever watch movies. I also caught up on So You Think You Can Dance. (In fact, it's about time for me to go upstairs and watch yesterday's show so I can watch the results show later this evening.)
Only 12 more days until we leave for Pennsylvania. I am pretty stoked! I have lots of stuff to occupy my coming week. I need to get our cars reregistered. On the 30th I have to travel to Birmingham to see my RE. On the 31st I have a hair appointment. Then it'll be another mad dash to clean the house and pack before we depart on the 4th! I should get started on a list of what I need to bring NOW so I'm not scrambling later. If only I could figure out a way to drop these last 10 pounds by the 4th... hmmph.
The Monkey isn't as thick as he sometimes lets on. I was sullen most of Saturday afternoon. Not even the Spongebob Spongebash marathon was cheering me up. That's when The Monkey gave me surprise, middle-of-the-afternoon-the-house-is-completely-devoid-of-lifeforms-that-don't-walk-on-all-fours-be-as-loud-as-you-want sex. Which, I'll admit, did cheer me up. But what really made my day was when he said if we had the $20 it would cost for gas that we should go ahead and make the trip down to PCB for the afternoon. At least we could get some sun and get our fill of the beach. (Not to mention SALT WATER TAFFY!)
We got up early Sunday and got to PCB by 11:00 AM. Naturally, the weather was less than cooperative. We would get hit with the 20% chance of showers. [eyeroll] But we got to swim for a couple of hours. And we hung out with my mom in my sister's condo for another hour. Then we headed to Pier Park and picked up a little over a POUND of Salt Water Taffy for yours truly and headed home. (I am ashamed to admit that the pound of taffy was gone within 48 hours. Er...maybe less.
What made the whole trip go sour for me was not the less-than-desirable weather, though. No, it was the fact that upon our return, The Monkey became ill. Fluids coming from both ends. YUK. We had a bit of a scare when his poo because the consistency of coffee grounds. Thankfully the doctor said it was nothing more than a stomach bug (even though our GP sent us to a surgeon to find this out and for several hours I was on razor's edge thinking The Monkey was going to be having an emergency colonoscopy). He was much better by Tuesday evening. His blood pressure was close to normal (130/80) and he's already dropped 10 pounds (though I'm not sure how much of that was mere fluid loss). He's perfectly fine today and back on solid food again. We had tortellini and garlic bread for supper tonight after living on soup and crackers for the past two nights.
The house is too quiet. My sister's poor dog was depressed the first two days they were gone. He barely ate and only came down from his bed upstairs to go outside. But he's been spending much more time downstairs since Tuesday. In fact, he won't leave me alone!
The week has been boooooooring. The Monkey has to work, of course, so I'm home alone all day. As tempted as I've been, I have not been sleeping until noon, though. I spent some time over at my parents' house and ran errands. At night, The Monkey and I have been enjoying oodles of DVR'd movies from the pay channels. My sister pays for Cinemax, Showtime, and HBO but they hardly ever watch movies. I also caught up on So You Think You Can Dance. (In fact, it's about time for me to go upstairs and watch yesterday's show so I can watch the results show later this evening.)
Only 12 more days until we leave for Pennsylvania. I am pretty stoked! I have lots of stuff to occupy my coming week. I need to get our cars reregistered. On the 30th I have to travel to Birmingham to see my RE. On the 31st I have a hair appointment. Then it'll be another mad dash to clean the house and pack before we depart on the 4th! I should get started on a list of what I need to bring NOW so I'm not scrambling later. If only I could figure out a way to drop these last 10 pounds by the 4th... hmmph.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
just get it out of your head
Even though getting pregnant right now would be nothing short of stupid I still, in the back of my mind, never stopped wishing it would happen. Of course, it hasn't. And I never, truly expected it to. Just that nagging hope poking the back of my brain...
but what if, what if, what if??
In regards to my girly bits, this past year has been freakish. I am used to not having a period for MONTHS at a time. It's one of the 'hallmarks' of PCOS, after all. But this past year I've been semi-regular. Maybe it comes from living with my ultra-fertile, set-a-clock-by-her-periods regular sister. She gets PMS-y and, sure enough, a few days later I am PMS-y. But, unlike her, my cycles were still erratic. A few times I bled for WEEKS at a time. I'd stop bleeding and be all THANK GOD and jump The Monkey's bones only to hear my sister say "Ugh, I'm getting ready to start..." and, after a mere week's reprieve from bleeding, I would start right along with her. I have wanted to hurt her on more than one occasion because of this.
Gradually the length of my period has been dwindling. The longest I went was 20 days. The shortest being last "cycle" during which I had a light flow for about a week. Only to start again ten days later. So, yeah, it's a bit annoying. Not to mention MAJORLY inconvenient. And a little expensive.
Without insurance, it was kind of pointless for me to try and get birth control pills to control things. Plus I want to be on a specific birth control pill (Yasmin) because the progestin in it has shown to help lower androgens. And it helped me lose weight in 2007 when we went on TTC hiatus post miscarriage. (In less than three months, I believe, I dropped 12-ish pounds.) However, now that I have medical insurance, there really isn't any reason for me to torture myself with these insane cycles. I mean, it's not like they are predictable. And they're wreaking havoc on my sex life. And I really don't need to get pregnant right now. And birth control pills are good for helping with PCOS symptoms. And, all in all, it's a wise decision.
And yet.
what if, what if, what if...?
[sigh]
So I guess it's time to make an appointment with my OBGYN for a slightly overdue annual exam. And it's time to seek out an endocrinologist to have all the routine tests done for hypothyroidism and insulin resistance / PCOS. And it's time to focus on getting The Monkey's back pain under control, even if it means potential spine surgery. And it's long past time for both of us to get our health under control. Especially The Monkey's sleep apnea, weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol.
It sort of feels like closure. It wreaks of finality that I'm not sure I'm ready to go through but know that I need to go through anyway. Hopefully children are still in our future. Hopefully this time next year I'll go back to my RE, get things rolling again, and be knocked up within a few months rather than a few years.
I know it's the right decision. I know it's the adult and smart decision. But that doesn't change how absolutely wrong it feels.
but what if, what if, what if??
In regards to my girly bits, this past year has been freakish. I am used to not having a period for MONTHS at a time. It's one of the 'hallmarks' of PCOS, after all. But this past year I've been semi-regular. Maybe it comes from living with my ultra-fertile, set-a-clock-by-her-periods regular sister. She gets PMS-y and, sure enough, a few days later I am PMS-y. But, unlike her, my cycles were still erratic. A few times I bled for WEEKS at a time. I'd stop bleeding and be all THANK GOD and jump The Monkey's bones only to hear my sister say "Ugh, I'm getting ready to start..." and, after a mere week's reprieve from bleeding, I would start right along with her. I have wanted to hurt her on more than one occasion because of this.
Gradually the length of my period has been dwindling. The longest I went was 20 days. The shortest being last "cycle" during which I had a light flow for about a week. Only to start again ten days later. So, yeah, it's a bit annoying. Not to mention MAJORLY inconvenient. And a little expensive.
Without insurance, it was kind of pointless for me to try and get birth control pills to control things. Plus I want to be on a specific birth control pill (Yasmin) because the progestin in it has shown to help lower androgens. And it helped me lose weight in 2007 when we went on TTC hiatus post miscarriage. (In less than three months, I believe, I dropped 12-ish pounds.) However, now that I have medical insurance, there really isn't any reason for me to torture myself with these insane cycles. I mean, it's not like they are predictable. And they're wreaking havoc on my sex life. And I really don't need to get pregnant right now. And birth control pills are good for helping with PCOS symptoms. And, all in all, it's a wise decision.
And yet.
what if, what if, what if...?
[sigh]
So I guess it's time to make an appointment with my OBGYN for a slightly overdue annual exam. And it's time to seek out an endocrinologist to have all the routine tests done for hypothyroidism and insulin resistance / PCOS. And it's time to focus on getting The Monkey's back pain under control, even if it means potential spine surgery. And it's long past time for both of us to get our health under control. Especially The Monkey's sleep apnea, weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol.
It sort of feels like closure. It wreaks of finality that I'm not sure I'm ready to go through but know that I need to go through anyway. Hopefully children are still in our future. Hopefully this time next year I'll go back to my RE, get things rolling again, and be knocked up within a few months rather than a few years.
I know it's the right decision. I know it's the adult and smart decision. But that doesn't change how absolutely wrong it feels.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
time for damage control
For the past year The Monkey and I have been pretty careless about our health. While we were actively TTC (and both employed) being relatively conciensious about our health came easily. We did the South Beach Diet twice with much success. And, in fact, we were still on the "diet" when we both lost our jobs and moved, etc etc etc. (I don't need lectures -- I know we were stupid.)
The Monkey actually does pretty well with his weight. Or, he used to. Over the course of a year I noticed some weight gain. But who am I to bring up such things when I had also gained weight. (In fact, there were months at a time when I moaned and groaned at the scale because my darling, wonderful husband weighed LESS than I did.) When The Monkey quit smoking we expected him to put on some extra poundage. Not to mention he wasn't very active because walking causes him a pretty good amount of pain. And yet, I allowed him to eat whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. It was bound to catch up with him, I suppose.
For the past month or so I noticed a trend. Instead of sleeping through the night, The Monkey was going to bed around 10:30 - 11:00 then, almost like clockwork, getting up at 2:00-ish to pee. He's never had this problem before so, like a good wife, I immediately made him an appointment for a physical. I was expecting bloodwork and other routine stuff, to include a prostate exam. (Let's face it, The Monkey ain't getting any younger. :P) What I wasn't expecting was to see the scale tip as far as it did (he's put on 25 pounds in the four months he's been a non-smoker) and I was terrified when the nurse said his blood pressure was 140/100. So, our GP put him on Zestoretic for his blood pressure and he's going in tomorrow for labs. They're testing his cholesterol, blood sugar, thyroid, etc. And they're going to test for something regarding his prostate.
I feel like a bad wife for allowing him to continue his unhealthy lifestyle. He already has sleep apnea which increases his chance for heart attack and stroke by so-many-fold that it's terrifying. His weight increase is exacerbating the apnea and, of course, not helping his blood pressure or cholesterol, I am certain. So, instead of being proactive I have to do damage control. [sigh]
Of course, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. (The fact that we HAVE to pay close attention to our health, not the fact that things are not going well.) I'm going to see if I can find a place for us to swim. That's the only exercise I can see him taking to because it won't hurt. We'll be taking things one step at a time. First and foremost is our diet and his blood pressure/cholesterol. Once those are under control and he's doing better in that respect, I'll see about making him another appointment to see about a CPAP machine. Eventually we'll see about getting him into a back specialist to see what can be done about his sciatica. (Of course, we could get reeeeeeeeally lucky and have that become a non-issue once he loses weight.)
In the mean time I am forced to be the worry-wart that I am. I am also tasked with making meals that reflect a healthy and well-balanced diet. If anyone has suggestions on recipes or some type of meal planner, by all means!
The Monkey actually does pretty well with his weight. Or, he used to. Over the course of a year I noticed some weight gain. But who am I to bring up such things when I had also gained weight. (In fact, there were months at a time when I moaned and groaned at the scale because my darling, wonderful husband weighed LESS than I did.) When The Monkey quit smoking we expected him to put on some extra poundage. Not to mention he wasn't very active because walking causes him a pretty good amount of pain. And yet, I allowed him to eat whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. It was bound to catch up with him, I suppose.
For the past month or so I noticed a trend. Instead of sleeping through the night, The Monkey was going to bed around 10:30 - 11:00 then, almost like clockwork, getting up at 2:00-ish to pee. He's never had this problem before so, like a good wife, I immediately made him an appointment for a physical. I was expecting bloodwork and other routine stuff, to include a prostate exam. (Let's face it, The Monkey ain't getting any younger. :P) What I wasn't expecting was to see the scale tip as far as it did (he's put on 25 pounds in the four months he's been a non-smoker) and I was terrified when the nurse said his blood pressure was 140/100. So, our GP put him on Zestoretic for his blood pressure and he's going in tomorrow for labs. They're testing his cholesterol, blood sugar, thyroid, etc. And they're going to test for something regarding his prostate.
I feel like a bad wife for allowing him to continue his unhealthy lifestyle. He already has sleep apnea which increases his chance for heart attack and stroke by so-many-fold that it's terrifying. His weight increase is exacerbating the apnea and, of course, not helping his blood pressure or cholesterol, I am certain. So, instead of being proactive I have to do damage control. [sigh]
Of course, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. (The fact that we HAVE to pay close attention to our health, not the fact that things are not going well.) I'm going to see if I can find a place for us to swim. That's the only exercise I can see him taking to because it won't hurt. We'll be taking things one step at a time. First and foremost is our diet and his blood pressure/cholesterol. Once those are under control and he's doing better in that respect, I'll see about making him another appointment to see about a CPAP machine. Eventually we'll see about getting him into a back specialist to see what can be done about his sciatica. (Of course, we could get reeeeeeeeally lucky and have that become a non-issue once he loses weight.)
In the mean time I am forced to be the worry-wart that I am. I am also tasked with making meals that reflect a healthy and well-balanced diet. If anyone has suggestions on recipes or some type of meal planner, by all means!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
momentary FREAK out
The Monkey got his very first VZW paystub today. We haven't actually gotten paid -- that'll happen on Friday, or tomorrow if we're lucky -- but they set up payroll on Wednesdays and paychecks can be viewed (along with TONS of other stuff) online. One of my biggest concerns about this paycheck was whether or not it was going to be a half (one week) paycheck or a full (two weeks) paycheck. The Monkey insisted that he asked this question of HR and everyone else in every way imaginable and they'd all replied that he would get a full paycheck. Despite his vehemence, I remained skeptical. After all, how was it that he was supposed to be paid in the same week that he was being paid for? It didn't make sense to me. He went back to HR in an effort to ease my mind and, again, he was assured that he would be getting a full two week's pay. Color me the pessimist -- I was still convinced that we were going to get one week's pay. [shrug] Much to my relief, however, The Monkey sent me a text message this afternoon that said to take a look at his paycheck online. He also said that HR (a nice lady that says hi to me, still, every time she sees me) said to tell me 'I told you so!' Hah! So, naturally I was feeling pretty elated. That was until I noticed they hadn't taken any deductions out of this check. That wasn't really a big deal until I thought hard about the amount he was paid. It was right on track with my estimates AFTER deductions. I started panicking and noticed that my brilliant husband decided to claim SINGLE on his W-4s! They took 22% of his pay in taxes! If they keep that up we'll be making about $300 less than I'd anticipated a month! Basically his take-home pay would increase by $100 a month vs. the $400 I'd been so looking forward to.
So, naturally, I freaked. I sent him a frantic text message and asked him what on earth possessed him to claim single?? I mean, for crying out loud, at least claim MARRIED! I understand not wanting to put any exemptions down in fear of owing the IRS money at the end of the year but 22% of his pay is DEFINITE over kill.
Like I said before, though, they have lots of stuff available on this website that has to do with The Monkey. Including a way to electronically update W-4s. HUGE sigh of relief when I was able to change it to Married with one exemption. (Which is still playing it safe as IRS.gov said we could easily claim three exemptions on top of the married status.) So we'll see the changes reflected in his next paycheck, I hope. If not, definitely the following paycheck.
We spent a couple of hours the other night pouring over benefit elections. There were three medical plans to choose from. A PPO option, an HMO option (Blue Cross Blue Shield of AL), and a high end, open access plan. We compared the three and eliminated the PPO plan right off the bat. High deductibles, higher copays...blah. The HMO plan seemed reasonable enough but I would have to go through my family doctor for EVERYTHING. Which, okay, wasn't a big deal, until I saw that the mental health coverage was quite limited. I imagine they probably had the EPS (Expanded Psychiatric Services) option like my previous plan with BCBS of AL had but they didn't give me the option to check the benefits manual and I didn't want to risk it. Everything 'infertility' related under the HMO plan was listed as "check benefits" with nowhere to go to actually check the benefits. So, we wound up going with the open access plan. Which clearly stated that mental health coverage is UNLIMITED and covered 100% after the $20 copay. Infertility services for treating the 'underlying cause' was 100% covered also. To my dismay, IVF and IUI were not covered under any of the plans. And I'm not really sure what the coverage entails, exactly, until I can get my mitts on a benefits booklet. But the mental health coverage outweighed the infertility coverage at this point. After all, we can change plans at open enrollment next year if needs be. We also picked up dental coverage and, to my delight, VZW automatically covers vision! So I can go back to my eye doctor and update my current prescription. Hoorah! We also picked up life insurance (on just The Monkey for now, since we didn't have to pay extra for it) and started up a 401(k). I'm most excited about the medical benefits, of course. No more worrying about jumping through hoops to get my prescriptions filled. No more worrying about The Monkey having a kidney stone and being slapped with thousands of dollars in ER fees.
The medical insurance we chose came out to be just over $2,000 a year. However, since The Monkey and I both quit smoking in February we got to put on our policy that we are NON-smokers which saved us a whopping $660 a year! $600 for the medical benefits and $60 for our dental! It works out to be about $62 a paycheck for both medical and dental benefits. I am quite pleased, to say the least.
So things are looking pretty good at the moment. The Monkey is enjoying his new position even if he does come home fairly exhausted. (He's actually already snoozing on the couch -- he just walked in the door 20 minutes ago. :P) My sister and I took the kids to her friend's pool the past two days. The first day we got there late so neither of us got any sun. Yesterday, though, we were out there ALL day. I got a little pink despite wearing sunscreen. Thankfully, though, I am already mostly brown everywhere that was pink yesterday so I think I avoided a nasty sunburn and I don't think I'll wind up peeling. The pool we've been going to is an in-ground pool which is a nice contrast to my parents' above ground pool. The nicest thing, though, is my sister's friend's pool is SALTWATER instead of chlorine. SOOOOOOO much nicer! We're trying desperately to talk my dad into converting but he won't budge. Even though we've told him how much cheaper it will be in the long run when he doesn't have to buy 8000 different chemicals to put in it! Oh well. Such is life.
Now I think I'm going to give into my horrible craving for Chinese take-out. Cream cheese wontons, here I come!
So, naturally, I freaked. I sent him a frantic text message and asked him what on earth possessed him to claim single?? I mean, for crying out loud, at least claim MARRIED! I understand not wanting to put any exemptions down in fear of owing the IRS money at the end of the year but 22% of his pay is DEFINITE over kill.
Like I said before, though, they have lots of stuff available on this website that has to do with The Monkey. Including a way to electronically update W-4s. HUGE sigh of relief when I was able to change it to Married with one exemption. (Which is still playing it safe as IRS.gov said we could easily claim three exemptions on top of the married status.) So we'll see the changes reflected in his next paycheck, I hope. If not, definitely the following paycheck.
We spent a couple of hours the other night pouring over benefit elections. There were three medical plans to choose from. A PPO option, an HMO option (Blue Cross Blue Shield of AL), and a high end, open access plan. We compared the three and eliminated the PPO plan right off the bat. High deductibles, higher copays...blah. The HMO plan seemed reasonable enough but I would have to go through my family doctor for EVERYTHING. Which, okay, wasn't a big deal, until I saw that the mental health coverage was quite limited. I imagine they probably had the EPS (Expanded Psychiatric Services) option like my previous plan with BCBS of AL had but they didn't give me the option to check the benefits manual and I didn't want to risk it. Everything 'infertility' related under the HMO plan was listed as "check benefits" with nowhere to go to actually check the benefits. So, we wound up going with the open access plan. Which clearly stated that mental health coverage is UNLIMITED and covered 100% after the $20 copay. Infertility services for treating the 'underlying cause' was 100% covered also. To my dismay, IVF and IUI were not covered under any of the plans. And I'm not really sure what the coverage entails, exactly, until I can get my mitts on a benefits booklet. But the mental health coverage outweighed the infertility coverage at this point. After all, we can change plans at open enrollment next year if needs be. We also picked up dental coverage and, to my delight, VZW automatically covers vision! So I can go back to my eye doctor and update my current prescription. Hoorah! We also picked up life insurance (on just The Monkey for now, since we didn't have to pay extra for it) and started up a 401(k). I'm most excited about the medical benefits, of course. No more worrying about jumping through hoops to get my prescriptions filled. No more worrying about The Monkey having a kidney stone and being slapped with thousands of dollars in ER fees.
The medical insurance we chose came out to be just over $2,000 a year. However, since The Monkey and I both quit smoking in February we got to put on our policy that we are NON-smokers which saved us a whopping $660 a year! $600 for the medical benefits and $60 for our dental! It works out to be about $62 a paycheck for both medical and dental benefits. I am quite pleased, to say the least.
So things are looking pretty good at the moment. The Monkey is enjoying his new position even if he does come home fairly exhausted. (He's actually already snoozing on the couch -- he just walked in the door 20 minutes ago. :P) My sister and I took the kids to her friend's pool the past two days. The first day we got there late so neither of us got any sun. Yesterday, though, we were out there ALL day. I got a little pink despite wearing sunscreen. Thankfully, though, I am already mostly brown everywhere that was pink yesterday so I think I avoided a nasty sunburn and I don't think I'll wind up peeling. The pool we've been going to is an in-ground pool which is a nice contrast to my parents' above ground pool. The nicest thing, though, is my sister's friend's pool is SALTWATER instead of chlorine. SOOOOOOO much nicer! We're trying desperately to talk my dad into converting but he won't budge. Even though we've told him how much cheaper it will be in the long run when he doesn't have to buy 8000 different chemicals to put in it! Oh well. Such is life.
Now I think I'm going to give into my horrible craving for Chinese take-out. Cream cheese wontons, here I come!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
proof positive
No matter how you slice it, treating and loving someone else's kids like they are your own is never the same. The bond isn't the same. The love isn't the same.
Lately my niece has been acting super bratty towards me. Whenever I so much as talk to her she starts crying or acts plain ugly to me. I can't really fault her for it, she's only 18 months old after all, but it still hurts my heart. It hurts my heart because no matter how much I want to pretend that my nieces and nephews are enough for me it simply isn't. I want a child of my own. I want that bond that doesn't compare to any other bond. I want the smile that lights up a room when I walk in.
I guess I'm just selfish. And maybe hypersensitive today.
I let myself run out of meds like a dumbass and now I'm paying for it. Hopefully I'll be back to normal in a few days. In the meantime I am going to drown myself in too much Guitar Hero Metallica. I'm currently downloading the entire Death Magnetic album. Maybe my husband will spend some time playing it with me instead of spending much of his off time on the computer playing Diablo. I shudder to think how little time he's going to spend with me when he gets a new card for WoW. Some days I'm just more needy than others.
Completely random and off topic: The Monkey won tickets to Bama Jam today. It's just too bad I'm NOT a country music fan. Not even a little bit. The only band that's playing that even remotely interests me is the Black Crowes. And maybe Kid Rock. Though Kid Rock is favoring towards country lately and, again, I am NOT a country music fan. And, honestly, have never been that big on Kid Rock, either. We discussed selling the tickets. They're going for $180 a piece right now. We could always knock off some of that and have a better chance at getting rid of them. However, we don't know if we could get into trouble for selling tickets that he won. Our second option would be to just say screw it and use the tickets. The third, and probably best option, would be to give the tickets to my sister and BIL. Since they both LOVE country music and they have friends that are going. WWYD?
Lately my niece has been acting super bratty towards me. Whenever I so much as talk to her she starts crying or acts plain ugly to me. I can't really fault her for it, she's only 18 months old after all, but it still hurts my heart. It hurts my heart because no matter how much I want to pretend that my nieces and nephews are enough for me it simply isn't. I want a child of my own. I want that bond that doesn't compare to any other bond. I want the smile that lights up a room when I walk in.
I guess I'm just selfish. And maybe hypersensitive today.
I let myself run out of meds like a dumbass and now I'm paying for it. Hopefully I'll be back to normal in a few days. In the meantime I am going to drown myself in too much Guitar Hero Metallica. I'm currently downloading the entire Death Magnetic album. Maybe my husband will spend some time playing it with me instead of spending much of his off time on the computer playing Diablo. I shudder to think how little time he's going to spend with me when he gets a new card for WoW. Some days I'm just more needy than others.
Completely random and off topic: The Monkey won tickets to Bama Jam today. It's just too bad I'm NOT a country music fan. Not even a little bit. The only band that's playing that even remotely interests me is the Black Crowes. And maybe Kid Rock. Though Kid Rock is favoring towards country lately and, again, I am NOT a country music fan. And, honestly, have never been that big on Kid Rock, either. We discussed selling the tickets. They're going for $180 a piece right now. We could always knock off some of that and have a better chance at getting rid of them. However, we don't know if we could get into trouble for selling tickets that he won. Our second option would be to just say screw it and use the tickets. The third, and probably best option, would be to give the tickets to my sister and BIL. Since they both LOVE country music and they have friends that are going. WWYD?
Thursday, May 28, 2009
oh yes, please!
So, The Monkey got his official "Welcome to Verizon Wireless" email yesterday. He is a VZW employee as of June 1st! SWEET! The pay raise and insurance are sure going to be a RELIEF like no other. And I am muchly appreciative of everything that has transpired since his being hired through Manpower. I am especially grateful to our friend Banana who has fought tooth and nail from day one and even before he was hired to get The Monkey not only in with the company but into a better position. She called yesterday evening to thank The Monkey for his continuous hard work and dedication to her team. (My man does have awesome work ethic!) Oh, and just so you know, Banana called her other team member and thanked her as well. She's not giving my hubby preferential treatment. Right now they are VERY shorthanded. The Monkey picked up 12 hours of overtime last week and he's looking at around 10 this week so far. This bothers neither of us because the extra duckies are really helping us out!
Speaking of money, The Monkey's coworker recently got hired on with VZW as well. She had a question about her pay stub and, apparently, brought it to The Monkey for assistance. She had a question about overtime pay or something and then mentioned that she'd received a $900 retroactive bonus on her first paycheck. SAY WHAT?? Oh, did I neglect to mention that, as a VZW employee, he is now eligible for monthly bonuses?? I didn't? Oh, well, now you know! I'm not counting my chickens or anything but WOW a retroactive bonus would be really nice. We could pad our savings acocunt once again (which has dwindled tremendously) and we'd also be able to afford some things that we've been putting off. Like brakes for both cars, for instance. (Also, for the record, our cars are not at all a danger. Our brakes work fine. The Monkey's car needs new pads and rotors because his rotors are warped and his car jerks a bit when you stop. But it does stop with no problem. My car needs a new caliper on the left side. It's sticking and occasionally produces a scraping sound that is definitely cringe-worthy. But, again, it does stop without hesitation. So neither of our cars are posing any sort of danger to us or others.) We could also consider purchasing a dehumidifier for the garage. It's ridiculously humid right now and the air in the garage is very close to palpable that it's a bit uncomfortable. I'm thinking a dehumidifier might help with that.
I spent some time yesterday downloading music. The last "downloading spree" I went on was strictly Metallica. So I went to LA Lloyd's Top 30 to check out some of the new rock songs that are playing on the radio these days. Lots of good stuff. New Nickelback, Mudvayne, Avenged Sevenfold, Hinder, Incubus, 311... the list goes on! So I downloaded about 20 new songs. During my search for potential downloads, I visited one of our favorite radio station's website, WYYX.com to see what they have going on music-wise. Intrigued, I checked out their local concert listings. I was none too excited with their line-up (Godsmack, Kid Rock, Drowning Pool, Green Day, Creed, Theory of a Deadman) because while I would easily go see any of these bands if someone handed me tickets, I'm not really willing to shell out a couple hundred bucks for them. Then, further down the listing, playing on Sunday, October 4th in Atlanta, GA -- METALLICA. I absolutely HAD to price tickets just to see! They weren't ridicilously expensive, either! The wheels in my head started turning. I thought about the look on The Monkey's face when I presented him with tickets to see his favorite band for his birthday. Of course, we don't have the disposable income at the moment so I didn't purchase them. But The Monkey and I talked about potentially going for it. When I asked him the last time he'd seen Metallica in concert he gave me a dumbfounded look and said "Well, never." !!! I've never been to a real concert in my entire life so this would be a REAL treat! The seats would most likely be in the nosebleed section but, still, I'd be able to say that I've seen Metallica live in concert and so would The Monkey! I guess we'll see how things pan out over the summer. I still have my trip up north to think about, after all.
Regarding my trip up north, we are planning for August 4 - 12! I think it's high time that I added a ticker! Just 67 days to go! Hooray!
Now I'm off to tag my new music and then I plan to get a shower. Hoping that the weather holds up through the weekend so I can go swimming! It has been a miserable month weather-wise. TOO much rain.
Speaking of money, The Monkey's coworker recently got hired on with VZW as well. She had a question about her pay stub and, apparently, brought it to The Monkey for assistance. She had a question about overtime pay or something and then mentioned that she'd received a $900 retroactive bonus on her first paycheck. SAY WHAT?? Oh, did I neglect to mention that, as a VZW employee, he is now eligible for monthly bonuses?? I didn't? Oh, well, now you know! I'm not counting my chickens or anything but WOW a retroactive bonus would be really nice. We could pad our savings acocunt once again (which has dwindled tremendously) and we'd also be able to afford some things that we've been putting off. Like brakes for both cars, for instance. (Also, for the record, our cars are not at all a danger. Our brakes work fine. The Monkey's car needs new pads and rotors because his rotors are warped and his car jerks a bit when you stop. But it does stop with no problem. My car needs a new caliper on the left side. It's sticking and occasionally produces a scraping sound that is definitely cringe-worthy. But, again, it does stop without hesitation. So neither of our cars are posing any sort of danger to us or others.) We could also consider purchasing a dehumidifier for the garage. It's ridiculously humid right now and the air in the garage is very close to palpable that it's a bit uncomfortable. I'm thinking a dehumidifier might help with that.
I spent some time yesterday downloading music. The last "downloading spree" I went on was strictly Metallica. So I went to LA Lloyd's Top 30 to check out some of the new rock songs that are playing on the radio these days. Lots of good stuff. New Nickelback, Mudvayne, Avenged Sevenfold, Hinder, Incubus, 311... the list goes on! So I downloaded about 20 new songs. During my search for potential downloads, I visited one of our favorite radio station's website, WYYX.com to see what they have going on music-wise. Intrigued, I checked out their local concert listings. I was none too excited with their line-up (Godsmack, Kid Rock, Drowning Pool, Green Day, Creed, Theory of a Deadman) because while I would easily go see any of these bands if someone handed me tickets, I'm not really willing to shell out a couple hundred bucks for them. Then, further down the listing, playing on Sunday, October 4th in Atlanta, GA -- METALLICA. I absolutely HAD to price tickets just to see! They weren't ridicilously expensive, either! The wheels in my head started turning. I thought about the look on The Monkey's face when I presented him with tickets to see his favorite band for his birthday. Of course, we don't have the disposable income at the moment so I didn't purchase them. But The Monkey and I talked about potentially going for it. When I asked him the last time he'd seen Metallica in concert he gave me a dumbfounded look and said "Well, never." !!! I've never been to a real concert in my entire life so this would be a REAL treat! The seats would most likely be in the nosebleed section but, still, I'd be able to say that I've seen Metallica live in concert and so would The Monkey! I guess we'll see how things pan out over the summer. I still have my trip up north to think about, after all.
Regarding my trip up north, we are planning for August 4 - 12! I think it's high time that I added a ticker! Just 67 days to go! Hooray!
Now I'm off to tag my new music and then I plan to get a shower. Hoping that the weather holds up through the weekend so I can go swimming! It has been a miserable month weather-wise. TOO much rain.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
galloping triplets (and cheese that isn't yours)
Once a month the call center does something called "Wacky Wednesday" for the employees. I guess something to boost morale and keep things light and fun. The Monkey never really gets into it much. For Pirate Day he wore a bandana on his head and a big hoop earing. But that was about it. Each month a different supervisor is in charge of planning and executing the festivities. This week it was Banana's (The Monkey's supervisor) turn. Her theme was "Rock & Roll Day" and she asked The Monkey and I to help her out with some of the activities. She needed trivia questions and she planned on bringing in Guitar Hero: World Tour to give the employees some friendly competition. They also do a potluck lunch. The Monkey agreed to bring tortilla chips and nacho cheese dip. (Hey...what do you call cheese that isn't yours? NACHO CHEESE, of course! [dies laughing])
So while The Monkey boned up his Guitar Hero skills last night (ehem...as if he really needed it), I scoured the Internet for 40 rock and roll trivia questions. I have to admit that it was a lot of fun. I found a really cool website that was full of music trivia and mostly used questions from it. Some I came up with on my own, though.
After I dropped off the crockpot FULL of nacho cheese dip, I stopped by to see my mom for a few. She was lounging around in her PJs for her day off. I munched on some leftover cucumber salad and a little bit of potato salad, too. I was pretty thrilled this morning when I stepped on the scale and it said 218! Holy crap! I haven't been eating the best for the past few days so I was expecting to have gained a few pounds, not lost! SWEET! I really do need to get into exercising daily, though. I'm still considering 10 Minute Trainer. Or possibly The Biggest Loser DVDs. We shall see.
Only a few more days before The Monkey is officially a Verizon employee! I'm VERY excited and so is he!
In other news, I am still having trouble with my stupid elbow. Now, instead of being sharp pain, it's a dull ache. It's really noticable when I try to lift things and at night when I'm trying to sleep. I should probably take Ibuprofen daily but I hate taking NSAIDs like that. Because they're so bad for your stomach and can be dangerous for your heart.
I saw my new therapist yesterday. The 'therapy' they give is not really therapy, though. It's more like a pdoc appointment except it's not with a pdoc. Then when I go see the pdoc my appointments last all of five minutes and only go over med changes/refills, etc. I'll be SO glad to switch to a new pdoc and therapist. Although I will miss the $5 prescriptions at SCAMH.
Now I am going to go lounge and read Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince for a while. I'm getting ready for the movie in July! VERY excited about it!
So while The Monkey boned up his Guitar Hero skills last night (ehem...as if he really needed it), I scoured the Internet for 40 rock and roll trivia questions. I have to admit that it was a lot of fun. I found a really cool website that was full of music trivia and mostly used questions from it. Some I came up with on my own, though.
After I dropped off the crockpot FULL of nacho cheese dip, I stopped by to see my mom for a few. She was lounging around in her PJs for her day off. I munched on some leftover cucumber salad and a little bit of potato salad, too. I was pretty thrilled this morning when I stepped on the scale and it said 218! Holy crap! I haven't been eating the best for the past few days so I was expecting to have gained a few pounds, not lost! SWEET! I really do need to get into exercising daily, though. I'm still considering 10 Minute Trainer. Or possibly The Biggest Loser DVDs. We shall see.
Only a few more days before The Monkey is officially a Verizon employee! I'm VERY excited and so is he!
In other news, I am still having trouble with my stupid elbow. Now, instead of being sharp pain, it's a dull ache. It's really noticable when I try to lift things and at night when I'm trying to sleep. I should probably take Ibuprofen daily but I hate taking NSAIDs like that. Because they're so bad for your stomach and can be dangerous for your heart.
I saw my new therapist yesterday. The 'therapy' they give is not really therapy, though. It's more like a pdoc appointment except it's not with a pdoc. Then when I go see the pdoc my appointments last all of five minutes and only go over med changes/refills, etc. I'll be SO glad to switch to a new pdoc and therapist. Although I will miss the $5 prescriptions at SCAMH.
Now I am going to go lounge and read Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince for a while. I'm getting ready for the movie in July! VERY excited about it!
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