the post that's taken me 5 hours to write and post!

Got home last night and Adam was already asleep. Poor guy. He's beat. I stayed up til about 11 puttering around and doing the things on my list. I am not burning with quite the fervor I was, but I think it's just because I'm hungry. My goal is to make it for two weeks doing this taskpane stuff on outlook and the sparkpeople. In two weeks I am allowed to change my goals, but I want to give it enough time for habits to develop.

http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage.asp?id=ROYABOYA is my sparkpage. If you are at all interested in doing anything like this - join up (it's free) and add me or befriend me or something! It's a very cool site.

I made these bowls for a custom order last night. I may have broken my spinning wheel in the process. I am afraid to even look. I need to download an Ashford template or something and relearn my wheel. I can use it, but not optimally.

Tonight after I get off work I am going to run to the grocery store, buy brown rice, skewers, some veggies - go home and grill the chicken, feed the fish, sweep the house, package Joel's bowls, then go to karate. After karate I am dropping off the bowls at Julie's, then coming home and running with Adam at 9. I am going to water the garden, feed the dog, and maybe work on my mom's white hat. Then tonight I think I get to sleep early!!! WOOHOO!
Other things I can always work on: putting photos in my jewelry box, cleaning off the dresser, organizing the art supply room.
Tomorrow is the doctor's appointment, and maybe lunch with Jake Matilsky (!!!!) and then dealing with the afteraffects of the doctor's appointment.

I am kind of tired, but still motivated to keep going with my to do list. I think I am literally just not getting enough sleep, so as long as I fix that, I should be good to go. Emily and I are talking about starting to go to the gym early before work next week, which would be wonderful. We shall see.

allergies and ceramics

So the itchiness saga continues. I went to the doctor today again. He upped one dosage, and prescribed another medication which will help with the side effects of the first one, also he gave me another antihistamine. Allergy testing and a biopsy on Friday. woohoo.

In other news, I brought home a few more boxes of ceramics that I made at IFAC. Here are some of the photos - I've listed four of them on etsy, but there are definitely more to follow!

itchiness

Ever since I was a little kid, after I'd get a bad cold, I would end up with a case of hives. They'd drive me crazy for about a day and a half, eventually I'd take benadryl, fall asleep, and wake up fine. No one could ever figure out why I did it, but other than insane-itchiness, it never seemed to cause any other harm.

Well, I have been getting over a cold, and, true to form, the hives resurfaced. That was four days ago. Last night was the worst - I did everything, benadryl, oatmeal bath, creams and salves and ice, etc. I finally reacted to the antihistimines and fell asleep - but DREAMT that I had an allergic reaction to the Lion that was feeding me birds nest soup on Top Chef, and itched til I woke up, then I itched some more. It was so bad that I went to Urgent Care - except MY urgent care was closed with no sign of life, so I went to the one I used to go to in Long Beach. Well, as luck would have it, I am in between insurances (literally in between - we had open enrollment last week, so I am done with one, enrolled in another, but just don't have the CARD or the NUMBER yet) so they wouldn't see me at that urgent care. I went down the street to another, where they'd take cash. A few hours and a pushy doctor later, they gave me a cortison shot (biggest shot I've ever seen, it was like a cartoon. ouch) and a prescription.
I stopped and got pho on the way home, and am still itching, waiting, waiting for that horribly painful shot to be worth something.

I am too distracted to cross stitch, too itchy to knit, my hands and fingers are swollen, and I don't know what to do!
So this has been my life the past few days - rotating from couch to bed to bathtub to towel to robe to towel to pajama pants. I've read the Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, and watched countless episodes of Friends. I am going out of my mind with the itchiness!
So where are you folks when I need you, eh? Distract me!!!

xmas, puppies, and...biopsies?

I always wonder just how personal to make this blog..and I go back and forth about which details to write and which not to write. But ya know, I've never been one to hold back, and honestly - you all saw me dressed up in 80's style hair/makeup, so I think we have no secrets anymore. I went to the doctor again today for a recurring issue that's caused a lot of pain for me for about a year. I've been so frustrated - I've seen I can't even tell you how many doctors how many times. I switched again, so today was the first day with this new specialist, and it was a little disconcerting because she shares an office with the last person I saw. She was younger, and had a lot of confidence. I really liked her - she seems like she is really taking control of my situation, rather than everyone else who all had a "wait and see..." attitude..for the last YEAR. So that's the good news. The bad news (well, sort of good news too I guess) is that I am having a biopsy in a couple of weeks. It's good because some sort of progress is being made, but it's bad because the idea of a biopsy is kind of freaking me out. So... I don't know. I think I am deciding to just be glad that she is doing something about it.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve! I seem to be more enmeshed in Christmas than I ever have been in the past. Part of it is working in an office for the first time - so the amount of cards and candies and cookies is kind of staggering. Part of it is running an etsy site, I WANT people to be christmas-present-ing, and part of it is living with Adam and having a tree and putting up lights and getting presents for each other's families and everything. I believe that wonderful man o mine is going snowboarding during the day, but then we have a Christmas Eve date to watch Love Actually and open our presents. Christmas day is going to be a very very long family day, so I'm going to take a minute now and zen out so I remember that I love being with family, Adam gets overwhelmed sometimes by mine, and we won't all hang out again til Easter so I should soak it up now.

Oooooh the other big news, which deserves it's own post really, is that we are looking into getting a PUPPY!!! So exciting! We are going to get (ideally) a female german shepherd puppy, which I will be initially and primarily responsible for, since Adam already has Rommel and Adam will be starting Police Academy soon. I have puppy fever like crazy. I want want want want want and it's sort of driving me bonkers not being able to rush out and go GET one. We're waiting to hear from his dad, though, because as captain-something-or-other of the la-county-animal-something-or-other he has some ins and favors he could potentially call in to get us a catch on a new dog. SO EXCITED. WANT A PUPPY NOW.

I am so excited in fact, that I think this post deserves some puppy love in the form of photos of german shepherd puppies. Who doesn't love that??

AHHHhhhhh I die, I die, I die... must-have-puppy-NOW!

oh you know, stuff

Well, yesterday's doctor's appointment turned out to be a big emotional drain/letdown/hopeful visit. It was a weird mix. I didn't end up getting a biopsy...but I also don't feel very good about making progress in figuring out exactly what is going on. The doc gave me something else to try for another month, and, yet again, we'll just have to "wait and see." Grr.

On the upside, Adam took me to the doctor's and was wonderful and supportive and made me realize, yet again, how good it is to have someone like him to be able to lean on. I have a hard time asking for things like "hey I'm nervous about the doctor, I'd like your physical presence, will you go with me?" I remember once I had to go to the emergency room when we were first together, and I got my mom to go with me - I'm used to depending on her! It's a funny transition going from her to boyfriend, you know? But Adam did make it very clear that it's both that I *should* ask him of these things, but he really *wants* me to. I can understand that. I love to "be there" for him - it would hurt if I were never given that opportunity.

After the doctors, we had lunch at Souplantation, then I went home, did some work (I was working from home for the rest of that day) and then watched The Office while I knitted. I am working on my fingerless gloves in order to survive my freeeeeezing office.

Tonight is picture night at the karate studio, and I need to do some reading for psychology. Adam is frantically heading to Monterey as I type, and I turned down an invitation to go to Mammoth this weekend in order to see Roxana's show, And Then There Were None.

As far as karate goes - I hit a slump a few months back where I was just not interested. I had to force myself to go, and it took a long time for me to get into it once I was there. I consciously made the decision not to give in to that, and reestablished myself at the studio. Tonight I am testing for my first stripe on my greenblack belt, and I am excited about being excited. I am doing two lessons - one is a right forearm hammer to the back of the neck while stimultaneously kneeing them in the groin. This makes them bend over, and I do a choke on my right side (while making sure my right foot is placed beside theirs), then I plant my right foot behind them, and do a right sweep, which takes them to the floor. Then I do a stomping side kick to their throat with my right foot.

The second lesson I am doing, we both start left side up, they throw a straight punch, I block with my left (upwindmill block), then do a straight one-knuckle punch to their ear. I do a right side kick to their knee, which brings them to their knees. I do a right backhand to their neck, then I do a left upperarm strike to their throat while bringing them in to a four knuckle upper cut to the back of their head, almost in a scooping motion.

I am starting now preparing my lessons for my blackbelt test. These will be the first two I do. I will now never stop doing these lessons.

Friday morning I would like to wake up early enough to go running on the beach, since it's dark by the time I leave work now. Day 2 of the Couch to 5k involves two 8 minute runs. Adam will try to do his while he's camping in Monterey, so I have to make sure I do it before he comes home and wants to run 20 minutes straight.

Alrighty - that's all from me for now. I will miss Adam, but I am also looking forward to not having to negotiate what we watch on tv. :) Romantic comedies and "stupid" tv shows, HERE I COME! ;)

Tuesday morning update

I am so sleepy, that for once I am glad it's cold in my office. Last night Adam and I went to the gym pretty late - I worked on mah abs for a while and did the elliptical, and then we did day one of WEEK FIVE of the couch to 5k program. Holy cow, this week is going to kill me. But I do feel really good after I run - I hope I don't stop. It's pretty miserable, but I keep hearing people talk about how much they love to run and I want to be like them! :P I can see running has the potential, but right now, it's just pain. But I'm sticking with it - I have gone running three times a week for the last 5 weeks, so one day I hope it'll turn into a fun, good habit.

I made cupcakes on sunday using yellow cake mix and a diet soda. Very interesting. It totally worked and I was mucho suprised. I definitly want to experiment with this!

Adam will be gone from Wednesday to Saturday and then gone again all day Sunday. I feel the need for an Office Marathon with my little sisters already.

Today I have a doctor's appointment - that all throughout writing this post is what I've been thinking of. I finally have an appointment with a specialist, and I am a little (more than a little) nervous, but trying not to be. Wish me luck.

The thing that I keep focusing on is being able to finish my second calorimetry in the waiting room. I am knitting it with smaller needles and a smaller weight yarn - manos del uruguay, which is my one true love. then I am going to make some fingerless gloves using my kool aid yarn.

Here I go!