Migraines are Gone for now...
04.30.08 (5:09 pm) [edit]Well the migraines are holding off now. I have no idea if the next bout of rain will bring them back or not, but for now I'm okay.
Today I went shopping for a birthday gift for myself. My birthday is not for another month but I was eyeing some stuff on sale and decided to pounce! I got myself some pants and a jacket. I also ordered another pair of pants that will be in soon. They all fit very nicely but I must admit to being a little disappointed that I not only haven't lost weight since last year, my boob growth has pushed me into an XL top!
I was a L or a M in most tops but because of my stellar breast growth (from a B cup to a D) I now have to fit in an XL top. That stinks. I mean I know it's boobs and not fat, but the point is that I hate increasing in size even if it is an improvement to my figure! The pant size hasn't gone down (even though I thought it had) and so I felt LARGE today in the store doing my shopping...actually I felt EXTRA large!
Now granted I do have PMS and I'm bloated from here til next Tuesday, but I still felt really BIG. It didn't help that I walked in at the same time as another customer who was this cute little tiny woman and the staff practically fell over themselves to serve her and ignored me. I swear sometimes (most of the time) I feel literally INVISIBLE when I shop. I prefer to shop online because of the treatment I get from customer service reps. Anyway, I eventually got served and I got some lovely clothing, but I was miffed to find out I've gone up in size...even though it makes perfect sense with my larger chest.
You'd think I would be happy after a successful shopping spree, but instead I'm grumpy! I have GOT to figure out how to get some exercise with this stupid MS and lose some more weight. Stupid disease.
Scarce
04.28.08 (4:32 pm) [edit]I've been scarce. I have been having migraines. :( Bleh See you when I'm feeling better.
Complete Phoenix
04.20.08 (9:44 pm) [edit]My phoenix is done. You can see a photo of it here. The photo doesn't show all the flowers, but you can kind of see one of them in purple on the inner arm area. Most of them are actually along the side/back of the arm. I'm very happy with it.
Phoenix Complete
04.18.08 (11:58 pm) [edit]My tattoo is finished. YAY! I spent 22 hours (in total) in the tattooist's chair and am in pretty bad pain tonight. She really finished things up nicely by adding some extra veins in the feathers of the phoenix and really got everything looking fantastic. I can't wait until it heals and I can admire it in its completed state. I'll take some photos once I have the bandages off. I have to admit, I enjoyed getting my phoenix but I'll be glad to not be going back for a while!
I expect that in a couple more years I'll get my other sleeve done, but for now I'm good. I'll be glad to watch my husband get one next!
My arm is throbbing right now. :)
Haircut
04.16.08 (5:38 pm) [edit]Well I got my hair cut like Katie Holmes and now it's all nice and clean...all the broken dead ends that were making a mess are all cleared out now. Of course my hair is shorter than I like it, but I had to do it to fix everything. Now I'm going to go back every two months and get trims. I have already booked my next appointment for June. I have to say, even though this length is not as flattering as a longer length, I LOVE how easy it is to have hair this short!
MAC
04.15.08 (6:26 pm) [edit]My makeup has been needing replacing for a while. I should have replaced my mascara about six months ago. Anyway, I was going to order my usual makeup from MAC cosmetics online when my husband told me that he had a friend who worked at MAC in Montreal. He sent her photos of my face, and my list of items that I wanted and then told her to put together a case of makeup for me that includes the items I want plus a whole bunch of fun other stuff as per recommendation.
Well the girl was so excited to get to do this that she also gave him her discount! It's 40-60% off depending on the items. That means I get 40-60% more items! He gave her a limit and said to buy as much as she could for under that amount. She's apparently put together a whole kit of stuff for me to match my complexion, my eyes, my face shape...and I believe she put it all in a case for me. I'm actually really excited to get this new case of makeup so I can throw out all the old stuff and start fresh. I love purging!
Bad Hair Day
04.15.08 (2:48 pm) [edit]Well I think (upon closer inspection) that my hair breaking off was actually the result of a really bad haircut last time. I mean HORRIBLE. I went into the hairdresser in my home town. It's a small town that is located near a larger city (Ottawa). Anyway, the hairdresser barely cut my hair the last time. I even said "I think there's still some split ends in there." She said "Nope, I cut them all out!" but she hadn't cut them out. The hair still got knotted on my brush and it was tangling very badly after that. Anyway, after an entire winter of not getting my hair cut (because I didn't want to go back to her but didn't know where else to go) I am now going to a different salon in Ottawa.
I think my diet is just fine. I mean I sat down and was really thinking about what I eat....there is simply no way that it's a dietary thing. In fact, the roots of my hair are very healthy and strong. The tone of my skin is good and my appearance is very healthy with a nice complexion. My fingernails grow at an alarming rate and are nice and strong too, so all of the other signs that would accompany a malnutrition diagnosis are not present. It's only that the ends of my hair broke off...and not all of them (so I look like I've been having some light chemo). It's shocking that this woman not only is a hairdresser but OWNS a hair salon.
I've heard from the neighbours that she hires the WORST hairdressers too so nobody at the shop is really any good. They have one decent hairstylist and she's on mat leave right now. So that one hairdresser was the woman I USED to go to but couldn't go to the last time because she was away on mat leave. I figured that the owner of the shop would be even BETTER but nope...much worse. In fact, I believe that if the other hairdresser doesn't come back, she will lose her clientele and go out of business.
So I am going to get my hair cut soon...and I think I'll go with some bangs. I'm toying with the idea of getting something similar to Katie Holmes's pixie bob with the blunt bangs. I think I might go a little bit longer though so it doesn't make me look round-faced. I was going to go with a Betty Page cut but her hair was longer than mine can be right now. I'll work up to the Betty Page eventually but for now I need to go shorter than that to fix the mess. Note to self: Never trust your hair to an idiot again!
Hair Breakage
04.14.08 (3:49 pm) [edit]My hair all broke off at some point in the last couple of weeks. That was nice. I had hair to below my shoulders and now it's only to my neck. It just seemed to fray and break off. Weird. I can only assume it's a health issue...possibly a dietary problem. I have to get my hair cut soon to fix it all up. I'm going to go with a Betty Page cut. I want some bangs!
In the meantime, the research I've done has me kind of perplexed. I mean I eat very well and I take as good a care of myself as I can...I have lost weight though. Maybe I'm suffering from some kind of malnutrition. Hard to believe that could be possible, unless you count the fact that I often have the runs as a result of IBS like symptoms from MS. I suppose I could be having absorption problems because of that. It's not that I'm not eating well, it's that I'm not absorbing it all and as a result it's just passing right through me.
Sorry to be gross but it's got me a little worried and so I'm mostly thinking out loud here. I'm going to get my husband to buy more fresh veggies, because that's the only thing I can think of that might be a bit lacking in my diet lately. Really though, a few weeks of not eating as many green veggies should not make my hair break off. Strange.
Bubbles
04.14.08 (10:41 am) [edit]Remember the Dot Com bubble bursting? Microsoft stocks dropped, many companies went out of business. Here's a bubble that nobody's been talking about in the news but that everyone needs to know about. The housing bubble.
Ickky
04.12.08 (6:42 pm) [edit]It sure is ickky outside! It's all melty and rainy and the mud is really starting to come through all the snow. I really hate the melty part of spring. I'll be glad when things get more tulipy. :)
More Fun
04.11.08 (11:42 am) [edit]Again today I woke up and had to run to the bathroom. It's been happening all week. I had horrible cramping and for a few seconds I was actually concerned that I was having some kind of appendicitis or something! Anyway, I will be glad when this flu or cold or whatever is finally gone.
We are going to get snow here later today. Currently it's freezing rain a bit and it's very grey outside. It would be a great day to stay in bed watching cartoons! Hey...you know what, I can do that! :)
I finished a drawing I'm doing for a friend's book. She is a writer who has had some small success writing romance novels for teens that have a supernatural storyline. Anyway, she asked me to do an illustration for the back of one of her books. I did the drawing and will send it off to her soon. I have to scan a copy of it for myself first and I have to send it in a good cardboard "Do Not Bend" envelope so it doesn't get squished in transit.
Once it's published, I will be a "published illustrator". YAY! It also means that I will be a true artist because I've actually whored myself out and sold my work! I'm more interested in getting my artwork out there at this point though so I don't mind if I only get paid in "swag"...free t-shirts and that sort of thing. She's a nice girl and I know she can't afford to pay me...she has had some moderate success but I believe she's still operating at a loss with her books. So if nothing else it will be nice to be credited on the book for the illustration. Who knows, maybe someone will see it and it will get me some more work drawing.
The next project I'm going to start is a watercolour pencil drawing of irises for my mother. She loves irises and I am looking for something to do, so it works out well. I like irises as well and drawing them will be fun and challenging. I'm also going to be trying out a new medium...watercolour pencils. I've never used these pencils but I think the'yre going to allow me to draw and paint at the same time...the perfect combination. I have found a really great photo of two irises that I believe will make a fabulous painting. I just need to get some watercolour paper to work on and I'll be ready to go.
Tonight is sashimi night. Friday is the best night to get sushi/sashimi from our local sushi shop. I suspect it may have something to do with that whole "fish on Friday" tradition. As much as I don't think too many Christian people are very religious about food choices anymore, the fish on friday thing seems to be alive and well in the restaurant industry. Friday is often pea soup day in many restaurants because it's the one soup that isn't made with meat. The funny thing is that most pea soup recipes have a big glob of bacon or ham in them, but I guess if you're only doing it as a tradition and not really to adhere to any religious maxim, it doesn't really matter. Anyway, my point is that the fish at the sushi place is the freshest and the nicest on Friday. I suspect that everyone has picked up on this and that's why Friday is also crazy busy at the sushi place!
Actually when it comes to sushi you want to see the place as busy as possible. If they're not moving lots of fish, then the fish they have isn't as fresh! So if Friday is the busiest day because of the Christian tradition of eating fish on Friday, that works out well because it probably means that they'll continue to do things this way for a long time...which makes it easier to get really fresh sushi and always know what day to go on.
We've learned not to go for sushi on Sunday...bleh. We did that once and the fish was really not that fresh.
Anyway those are the thoughts rattling around in my brain today. :)
SPP Rant
04.10.08 (11:09 am) [edit]Have you heard about the SPP? The legislation that is being put together behind closed doors between Canada, Mexico and the US? They won't let any citizens of any of the three countries vote on it. They want to just push it through without any input.
In Canada the ONLY political party that has even got this issue on their agenda is the NDP (New Democratic Party) headed by Jack Layton. The NDP want to put the whole issue to a vote so that Canadians will have a chance to decide. The Liberal party of Canada is set to bring in the SPP but with considerable changes and the Conservative party is basically hoping (as far as I can see) to GIVE our country to the US and Mexico and just let the US draft up all the paperwork.
The countries meet in New Orleans in August for their next installment of the meetings. They keep no written record of their meetings and they won't let the public or the media listen in or otherwise have any knowledge of their discussions. The only people at these meetings are the heads of huge corporations like Ernst and Young and Wal-Mart and our nation's leaders.
Whether you approve or disapprove of the SPP, you should agree with me that these meetings need transparency. These proceedings represent the future of all three countries and they are not allowing their own citizens to decide. I was under the impression that WE ruled our government, not the other way around.
I believe that educating ourselves about the SPP is the only way to make a decision as a people as to whether it is right for us. How are we to do that if they won't let us have access to the information?
Craving
04.09.08 (7:23 pm) [edit]I am craving cold cuts. I haven't craved salty processed meats in years! Weird. Must be getting PMS or something! LOL! I went all winter pretty much without eating pork or beef. Beef and pork are both incredibly bad industries with regard to climate change and so if you're going to buy a hybrid (we have not yet!) there's also some merit in reducing red meat intake to reduce the demand for this industry...nevermind that red meat is not really as good for you as some other choices. It's something we can all do to reduce stress on the planet AND improve our health.
Anyway, soapbox preaching aside, I have gone all winter without really having a good steak or a good pork roast and so I think it's finally caught up with me and now I'm going to be forced to eat a bunch of nitrate-filled goodness! Seriously, cold cuts are the junk food of the meat family...even worse than fast food burgers if compared ounce per ounce. The salt content is out of this world and the actual food value per ounce is quite low. High in calories and low on freshness...yup that's what I'm craving! :)
Day 3
04.09.08 (12:13 pm) [edit]For the 3rd day in a row I awakened this morning and had to run to the bathroom because of my gut. Clearly this cold is doing some funny things to my tract. Bleh. Anyway it's day three of the cold and though I don't feel as feverish today, I also haven't bothered trying to get out of bed yet which was what led me to feel feverish yesterday. I seem to get too warm just by moving around!
The good news is that so far it doesn't seem to be a superflu! ;)
Cold
04.07.08 (2:13 am) [edit]I managed to pick up a particularly virulent cold on the weekend. I'm all congested and coughing. It sure came on fast too...on Friday my husband said he thought he might have a cold. Then Saturday I woke up with one but his was gone! *shakes fist* Isn't that always the way!
All joking aside when you have MS a cold can really knock the crap out of you and this time is no different. My joints ache, my sinuses are congested and I can't seem to get enough breath into my lungs. I keep taking huge deep breaths to compensate but it's making me dizzy!
Wanna know what's kind of fun? I watched the rest of the Stand tonight...Nothing like a horror movie about a superflu to make you paranoid about the common cold!
Snow!
04.04.08 (4:47 pm) [edit]It's snowing here today...wow, it's really coming down too. They said we'd only get an inch but it's been coming down all day...there has to be more than an inch now. I love snow...but spring would be okay too now! :)
Artsty Fartsy
04.03.08 (6:33 pm) [edit]So today I placed a new order for books from Amazon.com. I have mentioned several times how much I hate Amazon.ca...so I pay the duty and exchange to shop from Amazon.com. It usually works out to be the same price or even cheaper too, plus the selection is WAY larger and the service is much faster...really I could go on all day about why I love Amazon.com and HATE Amazon.ca. The point is that I have a bunch of books coming my way.
I ordered a bunch of books about how to use certain artistic mediums. I haven't had a lot of formal training and so I'd like to brush up on my painting technique and my colour theory. I'm getting some books on how to use watercolour pencils too. I also got some books of artwork to use as reference material. I ordered a book on World War I and WWII posters. They're all the propaganda posters from the war...which make great tattoo art. Basically I'm trying to gather up as many artist's references as I can so I'll be prepared for tattoo school.
My tattoo school instructor called me today. I think I cheered him up. He was telling me about how many nasty emails he gets from people in the tattoo industry trying to say he shouldn't be running a school for tattooists. I reminded him that it's not the other tattooists that matter in the equation, it's the customers. None of my friends care how long I've been a tattooist, they just want to see that I can do what they want. As soon as I'm good enough to give them a good tattoo, I have people who are lining up to get them from me. I told my tattoo instructor that basically it's not the other tattooists that get to decide who succeeds and who fails...it's the customers who decide. I don't think he had thought of it that way before.
Basically I plan on learning all the sanitation and technical aspects of tattooing. The only thing he can't teach me is how to be artistic...but he can teach me everything else. Then, when I'm finished the courses I plan to come home and practice a lot more...on grapefruits and fake skin. I will do small tattoos that I am comfortable with. I think that the concern that most of these tattooists have is that someone like me will finish my training and then think I'm some kind of expert, which is obviously absurd. I'll be an apprentice-level tattooist who has to take her time and be extra careful and spend a lot of time working on practicing and honing my skill. I think that the fear is that I would just run out and think I could tattoo some huge back piece right off the bat. Not so. But I do understand that some people would finish the training and mistakenly think they were better than they actually were.
Anyway, my instructor wanted me to know that my tattoo class will be at most three people: myself, an older man from Montreal and (possibly, not confirmed yet) a man from Newfoundland. Newfies are awesome and Montreal is where my husband is from so I think it's going to be a nice bunch of people to work with. My instructor is really nice too. I feel bad for him that he gets all these people harrassing him all the time...he just wants people who want to learn how to tattoo to be able to learn without having to beg for an apprenticeship and be refused because the shop doesn't think you're cool enough looking or that you don't want it enough...or in my case, because I'm disabled with MS. When I become a tattooist I will proudly announce that I was trained at a school...especially once I'm really great at it. And if anyone tries to give me crap I'll ask them just where the hell a disabled 38 year old woman with MS is supposed to get a freakin' apprenticeship? And if nobody will give me one I'm just supposed to say "Gee I guess I won't be a tattooist." Bullshit.
Harry Potter
04.02.08 (7:05 pm) [edit]Okay I'm finally going to watch the Harry Potter movies. I saw the first one and I think even the second one (although it was a while ago). I'm getting the second movie again (more to refresh my memory) and the third one. I am looking forward to seeing them. I like to wait for the hype to die off on a movie like Harry Potter. I did see the Lord of the Rings triliogy in the theatres but I was always a total Middle Earth nut. I think I saw the first Harry Potter movie in the theatres but quickly decided that I didn't need to line up for hours to see the rest. ...and then I just kind of forgot about them!
So I checked my movie rental service and it seems that Harry Potter is next. I also put them all in order from number 2 all the way up. So hopefully they'll ship them in that order and I'll finally get to see them. I really like the premise of the story. Adventures at a wizard school...How awesome is that! It's every kid's dream come true! No wonder JK Rowling is so stinking rich now.
I haven't read any of the books because I kind of agree with Henry Rollins that adults should not really be too proud of reading children's novels! I mean the stories are cute and entertaining but I think I'll stick to the movies...reading the books would just make me feel like I'm failing as a grown-up! Plus if I ever meet Henry Rollins I know it would be right after reading these books. He'd probably say "So what was the last book you read?" and I'd be forced to admit it was Harry Potter!
The Stand
04.01.08 (10:53 pm) [edit]I'm watching the Stand tonight on TV. You know this movie gets scarier with each passing year. It seems less and less far-fetched every time I see it.
The Latest
04.01.08 (12:05 pm) [edit]Well the latest news on my husband's work situation is that he probably won't be going to Australia...he thinks that opportunity may be given to a local person. So that means it would be straight to Texas.
He's going to try it out first...and he's going to talk to the manager of that department to find out what he'd be doing and if it was rewarding or not. He already worked under this guy once before and didn't like it, so I hope he's careful about this. Of course sales is totally different than technical stuff because sales is pretty "hands off" as far as managing goes. My husband wants to make sure of that. The goal though (according to my husband's manager) is that my husband would eventually replace the guy who is boss now of the sales team. That would be fantastic.
I suppose if he eventually became the sales manager I'd have to go down to Texas to live with him. For now though there's some good news. My husband's boss thinks he could easily telecommute from here and would not need to live in Texas. My husband kind of wants to have a small apartment so he'd have a residence but if it's not necessary right off the bat, that might make things easier for him to transition into.
On the whole, my husband seems pretty eager to take on this new challenge, which is nice. I told him that if he tries it and hates it they'd always take him back at his old position so it's not like he'd really have anything to lose in trying it. They desperately want to keep him happy so he'll keep making them money hand over fist. I think that he's going to end up with the best of both worlds...a job here in Canada and plenty of opportunity to be in Texas if he wants it.
He and I both were talking about how we'd be able to go to New Orleans for weekends or holidays if we wanted and we'd be able to really enjoy living somewhere different for a while. I think he's warming up to the idea of living south of the border...at least for a while. Of course I would only move if it became a more permanent job and probably not until after the dog had passed on (our dog is a northern breed)...we wouldn't want to torture the dog in all that heat.