: 'Careful' by Guster
: Cheery, except for the part of me in pain
Take a relatively normal, overweight person. Add stress. Stir until she gets both an ulcer and irritable bowel syndrome.
I've lost 7 pound in about two weeks, although not on purpose. Granted, I can afford to lose the pounds. I just wish it didn't involve pain, cramping, medication, and a constant need to be near a bathroom.
I'm paying for the fact that I forgot to take my medicine two days in a row. I did take it today (and in fact, I took my optional second dicyclomine for good measure), but I'm having the combination burning pain, crampage, and nausea. I'm discovering that saltines, the first defence of pregnant women with nausea, is also good for this. Unfortunately I was at the grocery earlier and forgot to get some. I've cut back on caffeine and fried foods. I did break down and had fries with lunch today, and that was a mistake. I also had lo mein later in the day, which seemed relatively bland, but again, ouch. I seem to do best with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and (of all things) Taco Bell burritos. This is not good for a girl who loves Indian and Thai food more than anything else. As N said today, the hallmark of a good meal is whether or not your sinuses run by the end of it.
I also found out today that one of my favourite restaurants, Aladdin, may be closing. At least there's a 'For Lease' sign up. They serve Middle Eastern food (I think it's primarily Lebanese). Oh, no! For one thing, that's my birthday choice, and it's just around the corner! Of course, they may be moving. I'll have to find out.
My cat just came out of the bedroom and meowed hoarsely at me. That's a little weird, because he's very vocal and usually quite loud. Spock is almost sixteen years old. You know how when they get older they occasionally sound like they're long-time smokers? He does that sometimes when he first wakes up...it's like his voice cracks. But he's still quite kittenish in all other regards. I'm afraid he's a bit...well, slow mentally, but he makes up for it in sweetness. Besides, I seem to be the one person I know whose animals are being good to be around today. One person I know has a cat sick and using the bathroom on her down comforter, another has one that very methodically peed on every one of her husband's shoes, one is breaking out because her loving (but allergenic) cat is licking her face in the morning to wake her up, and one's pets had performed a nearly surgically-precise raid...tearing open bread and cookies, chewing up books, and causing havoc with abandon. One of the benefits of having older animals is that they do not play these games. Granted, I do have one cat that is sort of evil on principle, but hey, you take that chance with cats. But otherwise, they're great, although there definitely seems to be a correlation between intelligence and age and maniacal behaviour when it comes to pets. I guess I'm blessed with the stupid (in Spock's case) and the elderly (in everyone's). My 'baby' is thirteen, after all, and he's the somewhat evil one. Loving, but evil. :)
Tomorrow the story should run in the paper. I'm looking forward to it. Other than a story I wrote and a snowman I built that made it into my college newspaper, I haven't been in the paper since a drawing of mine made it into the Mini Pages at 8 1/2. (Yeah, that was the age given. It's funny how when you're a kid that half year is so much more important. Now they fly by.) I know it's really a minor thing, but well...I can't help it, I'm excited to have a tiny blip of fame (and then fade back into the background, which is even better.) So, here's hoping that any of you who might come here based on that story don't 1) get bored, 2) get grossed out by posts on bodily functions, 3) decide to get pitchforks and torches, or 4) think I'm an idiot.
If you're checking out the whole blogging thing for the first time and are interested in starting your own, there are lots of great tools out there that don't require any web design experience. The one I use, for example--Blogger, allows you to insert links, check spelling, preview posts, etc., etc. by just pressing buttons; no coding is necessarily. But if you do know HTML, you can do all sorts of nifty things to your template. It's been a good experience for me to get into the habit of writing regularly, and also coding regularly. It helps keep up the skills I use in the workplace less frequently.
I was always one of those kids who wanted to keep a journal but who would start one, this miss some time, tear out pages, and start all over. Maybe that was budding OCD, I don't know. But I know that this is the first time in my life I've really been able to keep a journal, and I've been writing for over two years, regularly. I so wish that this sort of thing had been available years earlier, when I was in my teens and then later, during my marriage. The nice thing too is that you can journal without showing it to everyone under the sun. You can write a blog and keep it private. You can also have several people collaborating on a blog. So there are lots of options, whether you're getting together to do political commentary, writing songs, raging against the world, or just keeping up with friends. I've even tried blogging as fiction, but it's harder for me to update regularly, so I haven't really gotten it down yet.
Well, it's my bedtime. I took a nap earlier so I could stay up to watch 'Witch Hunter Robin'; I haven't been sleeping well and I just felt so much like getting some rest. Time to put on my chill music (soothing alto flutes and tuned crystal chimes) and head back to slumber. 'Night. And if you're reading this for the first time tomorrow morning, welcome. And, if you're a Kentucky blogger who would like to be added to the 'slice of Kentucky' section, be sure to e-mail me. Or if you have any comments. And thanks to Heather Svokos for looking at local blogs. :)
