Tired, crabby, bloated, crampy

I think I just said it all there. No award-winning posts today, sorry. If you want to see the lighter side of me (I've been very bitchy lately, I know), check out reverie.

I'll try to be more positive tomorrow and blog about some weird thing that happened to me or whatever. Hang in there...

Wasted Sunday

Yesterday was one of those days that just flew by, and I got very little accomplished. But in my defense, I woke up hung over AND had a migraine. So I didn't even feel like walking around without puking until after 1:00. By then my head felt like it was going to explode, so I tried showering and eating something (didn't work). I finally got my migraine meds and my headache began to magically fade away, but by then I felt exhausted and absentminded. I did sweep the kitchen and living room floors (gathering up a good pound of Adora's hair in the process) and I did a load of laundry, but that was about all I could muster. Today I'm just scraping by again, so I can already sense that I won't get much done tonight, but I really have to.

I wanna go back to bed.

When does it end?

I'm having fun with a marathon migraine, or so it seems. It started yesterday morning and I'm still enjoying it, over 36 hours later. I'm off to Walgreens to get my migraine pills, so I don't have too much to rant about besides feeling like crap.

On the lighter side, check out a wrap up of the weekend activities at my other blog, reverie.

Time to par-tay

No post today—gotta get skanked up for my bachelorette party tonight. Back tomorrow.

Companion cars

Don't you just love it when you encounter companion cars on the road? What I mean by companion cars is that car that happens to be going the same speed as you, driving in the same style as you, and generally your mirror image as far as driving goes. I love it when they're behind me and I'm the lead car, and we zip in and out of traffic together, seamlessly moving along the highway, leaving behind all the slow moes and other lame vehicles.

The saddest part is when one of you exits and the other must continue on, and the magical spell is broken. It's a very bittersweet moment in the world of driving, I think.

Overripe bananas

Man, I hate overripe bananas. They taste funny, they're mushy, and they're often full of brown icky spots and bruises. The only thing they're good for is banana bread. Pete and I have a symbiotic relationship with bananas though. He loves them when they're almost black and hates them when they're yellow with a tinge of green (my favorite banana stage). So I get all the lovely firm bananas and he gets all the overripe spotted ones. There are never any bananas wasted in our house, that's for sure.

Headache

I've got a lovely headache at the present moment. I'm generating lots of stress right off the bat today, due to me being late to work. What a great start to the day. I hope my headache doesn't mutate into a migraine....

Kanker sores

My favorite thing in the whole wide world—kanker sores! And I get them quite frequently, too. I think a lot of it is tied into my stressful nature (oh, to be rid of that side of me!). And a lot of it is tied into my Hooveritis. (What, you say? Hooveritis? Yes, it's a phrase coined by my friend, Heather, to describe all the health crap I've endured for the last year and a half. That's a story for another day.) 

Anyhow, I get them all the time, and when I do, it's always 2–3 of them at once, and always always always in the best spots. Like in front of my upper and lower front teeth, or right near my lip. They are an absolute blast to deal with, too. Not just because it sucks when I try eating food—ANY food, mind you—but also because they seem connected to my immune system. So when I'm suffering from a bad outbreak (which seems to happen every 3-4 weeks) I can feel my lymph nodes swell, and my left tonsil always starts throbbing steadily for days. And the darn things last for a good week or two. I just got rid of two nasty kanker sores a few days ago, and already I have another one!

I think I'm going to go find a nice big bag of super-salty chips now....

Slow-moes

Okay, I'm trying a new thing where I stay calm, stop stressing, and let things roll off my back. But as Pete and I were driving home tonight, we got stuck behind someone going 10 mph under the speed limit. Now I don't insist people speed or drive recklessly, but I honestly think it's rude and discourteous when people drive like that. It means you're making at least one other person drive slowly because YOU want to drive slowly. And it's always on a twisty road or in heavy traffic so you can't pass anyone.  Even better, sometimes there's a "slow coalition" that consists of 3-4 cars abreast on the expressway that you're stuck behind, all driving slowly at the same speed, usually a good 10–15 mph under the limit, so you can't pass anyone. And last time I checked, driving slowly in the left lane on an expressway is illegal—it's meant as a passing lane and is reserved for faster-moving traffic (yes, it's true!).

So if you're one of those slow people, please be kind and either move up to the proper speed or pull to the side, so that the person behind you can pass you. It's great that you want to drive under the speed limit, but such limits are set up for a reason—to keep traffic moving properly. And I might be trying to get home to my family, or I might be late for an appointment, or work, or whatever. And now because I'm stuck behind YOU I'm going to get trapped at the next light, which will set off a series of red lights for me. Meanwhile, you tap on your brakes and hesitate at that first yellow light (which quickly becomes a red light for me), then suddenly sprint through and go about your merry way while I'm trapped waaaaay behind you. Gee, thanks.

Rant-free Monday

Trip to Savanna—back tomorrow.

A plea to the man in the safety glasses

Please, please, oh please, do not leave the doors in our house open. Please? Please. I beg you. Is it too much to ask you to make sure the doors are closed behind you? A simple request, really. I don't mean to be a bother. I'm perfectly okay swatting away the flies and mosquitos that have invaded our home. And I'm more than happy to swelter in the stifling heat that has rushed in through open doors. But I cannot bear to watch another pet run away. I have endured too many close calls, only to find my furry friends safe from harm, somehow shielded in an armor of luck. Tonight, however, I am in despair over the loss of my dear friend Max. I miss his yearning cries when he's hungry, his smooth and slinky body rubbing against my legs, his graceful form jumping from couch to couch. I won't be able to sleep very well tonight, nor will I be able to go about my business tomorrow, without worrying about his welfare and hoping that we'll be reunited soon.

Please close the doors. Please?

Lazy Sunday

Why is it so deliciously easy to slack off and not get anything done on Sundays? I was a little cleaning tornado for the last few days and got TONS of work done in the house. But today the laziness bug has bitten me and I don't feel like doing much. Which is bad, since I still have lots of cleaning, errands, and freelance stuff to do. I'm sure having a little nip of Starbucks would motivate me if I can only get my lovely fiance to go get me some, but I'm thinking that's unlikely. 

Oh well. It's all good because in the meantime I've been creating lots of new sets on my Flickr page and blogging my little heart out. And Etsy's received quite a bit of my attention this weekend as well. I suppose it's a fair trade off since I'm normally super stressed and busy during the week. What's wrong with a little goofing around every now and then, anyhow? It's good for the soul, right?

Migraines, part two

Day two of migraine fun. I get rid of one, and then wake up at 4 a.m. with an even worse headache today. Took two aspirins and a migraine pill, and two hours later I'm still not feeling too great, although I don't feel as bad as when I woke up.

On the plus side, I did get whipped up into a house-cleaning frenzy yesterday after all that caffeine from the aspirins and chocolate I consumed (I always crave chocolate when I have migraines, for some reason). I got a lot of cleaning done, so I'm hoping to have the same results today. I'm going to go hunt down the candy dishes full of M&Ms and eat a few handfuls to get the show on the road.

Migraines

Boy I love migraines. I tend to get them in clusters that run several days in a row, so an entire week is usually ruined. And they tend to be all over the board in type, intensity, duration, etc. I usually rank them on a scale of 1-10, and I've very rarely had 10s, thank God. 

Today I woke up with a mild headache, so I took an aspirin. Didn't do anything, so I took another. Again, nothing. So I moved up to an Excedrin. I started feeling hyper and my stomach wasn't too happy, but the headache was only getting worse. 

Now I'm about to take one of my expensive migraine pills that run $5 a pop WITH insurance. The pills don't take effect right away either, so I get to suffer for another hour or so until the migraine slowly fades away. Sometimes I feel sickly and exhausted all day after taking the pill, even after my migraine is gone, so the day is usually a loss for me. 

Hopefully this one won't turn out that way. It's only a level 3 or so migraine, but it's getting stronger by the minute, so I'm off to take some drugs. Yay.

Good ol' myopia

Well, I've done it again. I own TWO pairs of glasses and can't seem to find either one. I wear contacts all day, but I need to give my eyes a rest at night, especially since I'm an illustrator/designer and proofreader, and my eyes are fried by the end of the day. So needless to say it's been fun trying to see what I'm typing here. And I can't see the wonderful things I've been looking up online for the last several hours. If I sit so that my nose is 10-12 inches from the screen, I'm good to go, but that gets old after a while and my neck hurts from the awkward angle. I think I'll call it a night and hunt for my glasses in the morning (with my contacts in, of course!).

The sad thing is my eye doctor now wants me to use readers at work. My eyes have been getting tired lately, and things are blurry and hard to focus on after 8 hours of work, even though my close-up vision is perfect. He says it's from aging. How depressing. Does that mean I have to get one of those eyeglass chains that little old ladies wear?

Lash out

Beware the evil eyelash curler. I have crimped my eyelid (yes, my eyelid) several times with my previous eyelash curler, but recently bought a new one, thinking I was leaving all that pain and irritation behind. Not so. This morning I was using my new eyelash curler and managed once again to pull out some of my sparse corner eyelashes. I have already plucked my own eyelashes a million times since I started using my new curler, so I'm surprised I still have any eyelashes at this point. Ah, the price we pay for beauty.

Urban cowboy

Tonight Pete asked me what I would do if he decided to start wearing a ten-gallon hat all the time. After a long, awkward silence, I asked him if this is something he has been thinking about doing for a while. Pete said yes, that he always wanted one like Hoss Cartwright, and that they make really nice felt versions. I was speechless and just stared at him. Pete then added that he has a "lot more cowboy in him" than I realize, and with that last comment our conversation was pretty much wrapped up.

Ewww

Pete and I had the great fortune to see not one but TWO truckers picking their noses this morning on our way to work. And Pete saw one of the truckers actually consume this little nasal treasure, too. Luckily I was driving and watching the road, so I missed that part.

Under penalty of law

Okay, I'm a freelance illustrator, so my taxes are taken out at tax time instead of throughout the year. So it can be a hefty fine I end up paying every year, and 2006 was no exception. I ended up owing $1,250 in taxes (yeah, ouch!) from my freelance work. I set up a payment plan with the IRS, which I faithfully paid every month (and then some), to the point where I'm currently in debt for maybe $50, $100 at most.

Well, on Monday I got a letter from the IRS telling me that I had OVERPAID $350 in taxes last year (this is equal to the amount I paid back online in 2007) and that they were graciously deducting this amount from the $1,250 I owed them. They confidently stated in the letter that I only owed $853 in taxes, and would I please pay them immediately? I tried to call the 800 number on the letter but was on hold for over twenty minutes. Pete was trying to clean his ears out at that very moment in our living room with an earwax removal kit, thus needing my undivided attention, so I was unable to complete the call. And I have a feeling they're going to withhold my economic stimulus check because of all this money I supposedly still owe, a check which was going to go into our savings account. Needless to say I'm very, very irritated with the IRS right about now.

Tomorrow I have to set aside some time at work to call the IRS and try to straighten this mess out. I'm sure my boss will be pleased as punch when she finds me on the phone for an hour, either on hold with the IRS or yelling at their representative to get them to help me. 

Where's the motivation to be a good citizen and pay your dues when you just get crapped on?

On the fence about safety

When I think about all the fights in my relationship with Pete, both past and present (and future!), I realize that I'm almost always surprised by the things he gets upset about. 

Take the "fence" in our backyard. Ours is a rental house, so of course we don't want to modify too much about the house using our own money. But there is this oddly configured, half-falling-down chicken wire fence on one side of our house that our dog Adora tends to escape from, and recently she tried to fake-attack a dog. That was the last straw for me, and it was time to put an end to her wandering ways. I've always worried she'll be hit by a car, run away (although she and our other dog Spanky always find families to hang out with), or scare/attack some other dog/person.

Anyhow, today my sister-in-law Jeanette suggested that she bring over some extra fencing to repair this makeshift fence, because Jeanette is also very worried about Adora's welfare. Well, you would have thought Jeanette and I were planning to build an addition onto our house from the way Pete reacted. Lots of drama ensued and the stomping of work boots was witnessed. Apparently repairing this fence for the safety of our beloved Adora was not a good enough reason for Pete to be "walked over" in such a manner. Our neighbor was totally fine with the fence idea (and I secretly think he was glad we were finally containing our dogs), so I couldn't figure out what the big deal was. 

After some more griping from Pete I quickly made my escape in a huff, angrily throwing down a fence spike on my way inside the house, and I left poor Jeanette to get bitched at some more. Only a short while later the fence was repaired, all was well, and Pete headed out to mow the lawn. Jeanette and I had a good laugh over the incident as we later drove to Home Depot ("Cart free and proud of it") where she purchased a lovely toilet. I, of course, bought an automatically self-closing pet gate at Target, which was truthfully advertised as both stylish and secure, and which wrapped up our evening quite nicely.

In the end, I'm still mystified as to why this was such an ordeal, and why it produced a very sour attitude from my future husband. I guess they say to always keep the mystery alive in your relationship, so it sure seems like we're headed down the right path. At least Adora won't be roaming the streets of Warrenville anymore....