Day Thirty-One -- Everything's coming up...

...not roses. In fact, you might not wanna read this one. Proceed with caution.

Brief break down of the day, because that’s all that I really got in me right now:  Spent the morning cleaning up the remains of the barf that got EVERYWHERE in the middle of the night. The good thing about this is now I know what’s been making me nauseous all the time, or at least one of the things. It’s the Norco that I take for pain. Last night I was in more pain than usual so I took two. The bottle says I can take one or two so I did. Apparently, my stomach didn’t like that because in a span that felt like only a second or two, my entire dinner was all over one corner of the room. It was so forceful that I didn’t even get any on me. I couldn’t even get my hand up in time to block it. Okay, enough barf talk, except to say that I felt better instantly after it the first blast. No woosiness or feelings that a repeat performance was going to take place. I felt so much better that cleaning it up didn’t make me feel like barfing again and that almost never happens.

Today was acupuncture day so I got ready for that, hoping that even though I took a shower and all that I didn’t smell like… the stuff that I said I wasn’t going to talk about anymore. We spoke of our dislike of hipsters (do NOT get me started on that) and about exercises that can help my knees. The rest of the day was pretty quiet, going out to Santa Monica and back for acupuncture took a huge chunk of it and then the cleaning. I’m going to end here tonight because there’s not much else to go on about. 

Day Thirty -- All The Small Things

Okay so I had written this nice two paragraph blog entry but the whole thing is about selling jewelry and what I’m going to do with my booth this coming year and blah, blah, blah, yackity smackity. I decided that it all needed to go to my Ooh! Shiny! blog and I also needed to write something else here. I feel like this blog should be more personal, but at the same time, I wonder if people can handle that. People don’t always feel comfortable reading about other people’s emotions unless they are over the moon happy, and even then, they feel envious and despise them… “why is that bitch so damn happy?” pops up in their head.  Also, if I wrote often about how much pain I am in when I wake up every morning, that wouldn't be good either. I don’t want to be pitied for it or feel ashamed because “Why is she so sick all the time? Why isn’t she taking better care of her health?” regardless of the fact that I just spent the past year losing 80 pounds and eating well and all that. Some things can be a bit out of my hands.  Geez, now I’m starting to sound a bit angry huh?

I would like to say that even though the day started rather iffy, in the end, it was a pretty neat day. I had my last Optifast meeting, and I am glad to say that I have made another good friend in the process just as I did by the end of the last round. Now I have to use what I learned and see what I can do on my own. I have to see about getting off the medication that actually makes me gain weight. It’s a horrible joke to play on diabetics… telling them that they need to lose weight and then putting them on medications that make them gain. It’s made the weight loss fight a bit harder than it needed to be. I didn't do as well this time as I did last time. First, a major challenge was that the sweltering summer made it harder to exercise as much as I did earlier in the year. Continuing an exercise program is easy. Starting one is very hard. It was also made harder because of a couple of health issues that popped up and injuries that made my mobility more challenging. I still have some issues with food, such as hating having to think about it and going a day without eating just so I don’t have to deal with it. But I’m getting better at that. It’s definitely going to be a “one day at a time” sort of thing. Having an exercise buddy would be a big help. Unfortunately, like in most things, I’m going to have to go at it alone.

Okay, so that went a bit more personal than I had planned. I didn't even go on about why today was so neat. Okay, since it’s late, I’ll give the brief summary. I got a pre-paid for commission finished and I sold some more bracelets at my Optifast class. It will help me pay for a new table for my booth and get some more supplies that I need. Then Rob and I went to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to get their free anniversary coffee. We sat there enjoying our coffees and talking and goofing off the way we do. It was a really nice evening. Sometimes it’s the small things that make a day nice. I really loved that I married someone who is such a good friend… and as big a goofball as I am. 

Day Twenty-nine -- Someone Said My Words Are Out of Balance*

Not much to talk about today. In fact, if I hadn’t challenged myself to write a blog entry every day, I wouldn’t be typing this at all. One funny thing that happened is that I got an invite on Facebook about getting a free coffee at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. So I texted Rob about it and when he got home from work, we went off to CBTL to get our free coffee. I should’ve known something was up when there weren’t many people there. When we went it, it turns out that free coffee day is tomorrow. We decided to stay anyway and have a couple of Americanos. Rob loved it. I thought it was pretty good as well. I guess tomorrow we’ll go and see what their anniversary coffee tastes like.

I didn’t sleep well last night at all. I have been having the worst shoulder pain and it’s hard for me to find a comfortable position to sleep in. I’m wondering if the cold has anything to do with it.

Instead of staring at the screen wondering what to say, I'm just going to end it here. If there's anything else I feel like I need to add before bedtime,  I'll just edit it in.

* The title for this entry is from a Soundgarden song called "Nothing To Say" ...in case you were wondering.

Day Twenty-Eight -- Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

Okay so, very cool day today. So far at least, I’ve decided to try typing a bit through the day and then putting it all together and editing it for the blog in the evening.  So back to the cool day… first thing this morning, I wake up with this idea in my head for a scarf pin made of wire and bead. It was cool because I remember waking up in the very early morning with the image/idea in my head but I fell back asleep but when I woke up again, it was still there. Hours later, after cleaning the turtle tank and doing other things through the day, I still had it so I just drew it on paper. Looking at it, I realize that it could also adapt it as a hair um, thingy. I don’t remember what they call those things where you twist your hair, put this cover thing on it and then push a stick through two holes to hold it to your hair. If anyone can remember the name of it, or even if you just have your own name for it, please tell me in the comments below. Until then, it’s “hair thingy”.

There have been things that I’ve been waiting to get in the mail. A few prescription refills, some beads I ordered over TWO weeks ago, and something I forgot all about even though I ordered it less than 5 days ago. That is the thing that came in the mail today and I’m very excited about it! My Seche products came! Seche means dry in French. The first product of theirs I bought was their Seche Vite top coat. It makes nail polish dry fast… super-fast! It works WAY better than Out The Door, but then, I think that OTD changed their formula or something because I remember it working better last time I had some, and now… meh. Anyway, back to my Seche stuff. One of the things I got was Seche Restore, it is a “thinner” for Seche Vite. SV dries quickly so Restore just adds the ingredients to it that evaporates out of it. I tried to use it on my old bottle of SV but the bottle top of it was a bit loose and I noticed that it had a lot less in it than the last time I tried to use it. I tried putting some Restore in it but I fear it’s too late for my old bottle. This is not a problem though because I also just got a Seche Vite Professional Kit.

This has a regular size bottle of SV, 0.5 oz., as well as a 4oz. refill bottle! So basically I have the equivalent of 9 bottles of SV for the cost of two regular 0.5 oz. bottles if I were to get them at Sally’s or another beauty supply store. I’m not running out of this stuff for quite a long time! I will, unless I get a wild hair and decide to change my nail color every other day. Even then, I’ll probably have this stuff a couple of years before needing more.  The last treat in this package is a bottle of Seche Rebuild. Hopefully this stuff will help build my nail strength so that they won’t break or tear so easily anymore. I read a LOT of reviews for this stuff and I have great hopes for it. There really isn’t any reason you can’t get plenty of reviews when buying things today for an informed decision.

I got a letter in the mail saying that it’s been a year since I got my glasses. Has it really? Wow. This time when I go to get my eyes checked, I’m going to tell them that I often have to take my glasses off when I work on my beadwork and does that mean I need bifocals. But maybe I should just try some magnifying lenses. I hope my prescription hasn't changed all that much because then I can get another pair of really cool glasses and switch it up depending on my mood. I know a woman who has a pair of glasses to go with almost every outfit. I’m not going to go that crazy though. Though I suppose I would if I could…

Tonight was also rather productive. We went to Starbucks where I tried the Blonde Roast coffee and I liked it very much. I even drank some of it after it had cooled down quite a bit without gagging. That NEVER happens with most coffee. I got two bracelets finished faster than usual, I think because my base beads were 6s instead of 8s. I have to remember that for the future. Oh, and just now, I came up with another design for hair thingies! Still don't know what to call them...

Day Twenty-Seven -- Baby You Can Drive My Car

So Rob and I had a conversation today. It was more like a mini-rant on my part. I was telling him about how it bugs me when people say that people in L.A. can’t drive, as if it’s a defect resulting from being born here. I call shenanigans because most people in LA are from somewhere else. Basically, the problem is, a bunch of people from all over the world converging on LA’s freeways and streets, all with different styles of driving based on where they are from, and these different styles just don’t merge well. No pun intended… until I recognized that it was a pun and then it was definitely intended.

So my morning was spent, in pain, all my joints practically. It was horrible. Still I tried to soldier on, sorting some beads that had come out of their containers. Then I remembered my musical therapy. Good music will usually help me through all sorts of pains and issues. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon at my work table making a necklace for Rob’s second cousin? I think that’s what it’s called. She’s the daughter of his cousin.

Once I was done with the necklace, which was very pretty btw, we went to her sweet 16 party at Rob’s aunt’s house. We got to see a bunch of his family that we don’t get to see often, as well as others who we see a bit more frequently. It was pretty fun but I came home so tired. I am still very achy. I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the medication I take may be responsible for my pains. I’m just going to end here and go to bed. I have a very busy week to be ready for!

Day Twenty-Six -- A Day In The Life

Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head. Found my way downstairs and drank a cup and looking up, I noticed I was late!
Found my coat and grabbed my hat. Made the bus in seconds flat. Found my way upstairs and had a smoke and somebody spoke and I went into a dream…

Wait a minute. That didn't happen to me! I need to stop channeling John Lennon. Hmm, how did my day start? Oh yeah. I got up, rather early considering I had gone to bed less than 5 hours beforehand.  I decided to work on some jewelry (spent way too much time on the computer, but for good reason in some cases) before going to the bead store in Newbury Park (ask me where that is and I’ll just give an ambiguous nod and say “that way”) I took care of some business and packed a few things for the road and finally got to Kristine’s after some delays. When Liz got there, we all got in the Baa-Van and went to Creative Castle, the bead store (there were a few other stops but that’s irrelevant to the blog.)

exterior of  Creative Castle

It was a nice place but I have to say that I liked The San Gabriel Bead Company (SGB from now on)  better, at least for what I wanted. This place had a lot of pretty vintage beads, but that was not what I was looking for. For the kind of seed beads that I use for the main project I’m working on now, I get a LOT more for the money at SGB. Nonetheless, I was happy to find something that I didn't know that I was looking for. Earlier this month, I was trying to make some earrings and I just wasn’t feeling it. Something was missing. I believe I’ve found it at CC. I found glass spacer beads that are like the neat metal spacer beads but in cool colors. I thought some were rather pricey but I did find some that worked for me. I can’t wait to use them. I bought a couple little baggies of black seed beads only because I needed them now and also some Magatamas (a neat type of bead) because I want to see what I can do with them. My bag was sadly tiny, especially for the amount of money I spent,  but that’s okay. At least now I know what’s out there and have an idea of what I should plan on getting if I ever go there again. I should say, the next time I go there, because I’m sure Kristine will invite me again and 1. I can’t resist beads, even if I’m just looking at them, and 2. Car rides with Kristine and Liz are pretty fun. So even if I didn't need anything, I’d probably go along for the ride. BTW, CC had a lot of tools and books there that I definitely have to check out the next time I go. All in all, if I’m going to be completely honest, I’ll say that the place was nice but I wouldn't shop there for the type of seed beads I was looking for. Damn, I feel like this should be on my Ooh, Shiny! blog. Maybe I’ll link to it one day soon. I have to catch up with that page.

Lastly, I know those of you who read this are wondering, “Hey, where are these purple hair pictures that we were promised?” Well, for some reason, for the life of me, I can’t get pictures to look how I want to lately. The coloring is wrong, the lighting is bad, it’s blurry… sometimes, and often, all of those in the same picture! So anyway, since I couldn't come up with a good pic of me, here’s one of me with a facial cream on my face while eating broccoli:

I figured that if my camera is going to INSIST on
taking bad pictures of me, I'd give it something
to really work with.

I hope you enjoyed that. Anyway, I’m off now, and remember: Feed your curiosity! Questions or topic suggestions are always welcome in the comments! 

Okay, seriously though, this is the best one, and it's blurry.  The cool thing about it though is
the AWESOME scarf that Liz made and gave to me because she thought it looked hot on me
AWESOME!
Comment below if you agree that it's awesome :-D
(or for whatever reason you choose.)

Day Twenty-Five -- Games People Play.

Today was awesome! It was raining, and hard, but I got to go out anyway because My friend Kristine picked me up to go to her house where I was able to actually get some work done! Even being short some beads, I was able to get some from her. Two of the bracelets I made in one day! Less than one day actually, less than 5 hours, and that’s including breaks! Now I feel back in the swing of things and I can’t wait to make more stuff.

Later this evening, I had to put my beads away, but for good reason. Kristine’s husband Dennis made two big piles of crazy nachos and some awesome, cheesy (in a good way) rice. Rob started feeling better so he came to join us. So did a few more friends. Actually, Rob was second to the last of everyone who came.

After dinner was when the fun really began. Kristen had brought a card game called Cards against Humanity. OMG I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard and I’m not the only one who felt this way. This game was so wrong and yet so fun. Though I recommend that before playing it, you think long and hard about which people you play with. It’s not for the faint of heart or the easily insulted. Don’t play with people who tend to get butt hurt over the smallest thing. With the right group of people though, you could have fun until you pass out.

As fun as tonight was, I go to bed excited for TOMORROW WE RIDE!!!

…to the bead store. It’s a different one this time though. One I’ve also never been to before called the Creative Castle I believe, and I hear it has an even bigger and better selection than The San Gabriel Bead Company. Of course I’m going with my new favorite bead shopping companions, Kristine and Liz. I’m going to try not to go into a bead frenzy, or bead coma, or whatever bad thing that happens when one is around too many beads.

What am I saying? There’s no such thing as being around too many beads. 

Day Twenty-Four -- In The White Room With black Curtains Near The Station

I'm feeling a little down and low key tonight so this blog will be very short. 

Tomorrow I get to get away. Hopefully it won’t be raining. If it is, I might go anyway, even though I don’t have any good rain gear and Rob will have the umbrella at work. If it’s just sprinkling, I’ll make the trek. It’ll be good for me to get away because I have a lot to work on and I think the best way for me to be able to focus on it and just work through it all is to be away from all the other distracting mess in my room. I went to Michael's tonight to get a few things so hopefully, I'll have all I need to make all the things I need to make by Wednesday. I just hope I don't forget to take anything with me when I leave. The other side of that coin is that I hope I don't take way more than I need.

This brings to mind another project I want to work on; a more personal project. Basically, I’m going to be designing my ideal next living space. I was going to make it like a vision board, but I’ve decided that it needs to be more like a portfolio. I’ll start off with the first page being the layout of the whole place. Then, I’ll have different pages for the individual rooms. Who knows, Maybe I’ll turn it into an online thing. I’ll also have to get Rob’s input on some of it, and maybe he can even do his own room, but we have a very similar aesthetic so I’m sure he’ll be happy with what I do. 

I feel like I should write more, but the feeling that I should just shut up and go to bed is even stronger.

Day Twenty-Three -- You set my soul alight

I didn't go out today. Not because I felt sick or anything though. By the time I would be ready to go, I wouldn't have had much time to stay where I went because I had to go to Kaiser later. Above all, I got kind of sucked into the Benghazi hearings on TV. I don’t know why I was surprised at how many of them are such big, inane jerks. Hilary Clinton rose above it all with such grace, clarity and authority.  

Yesterday I spoke about the Pantone Color Forecast for Spring 2013. I also wanted to remark that ever since Pantone has been brought to my attention, I have been noticing the colors being used in print ads and TV commercials. Just today, I saw a commercial for NutriSystem and I swear they were using at least 5 of the colors in the commercial. I believe I have beads in all the colors so this season’s challenge should be a breeze!

Lastly, (mainly because I’m sleepy and want to go to bed) I have to admit that I am quite crushed that I’m missing another Muse concert. It really sucks because I’m the biggest Muse fan. Seriously. I am an extra couple hundreds of spare dollars away from having a Muse tattoo. That’s how much I love them. The concert dates came earlier than I hoped and I wasn’t able to save up the money to get good seats. Who knew they would start their US tour in Los Angeles? I was banking on the thought that they’d probably start on the east coast. Don’t most bands do that? So now, I have to have pictures from tonight’s concert on my Facebook wall from friend’s that have gone to see them… friends who I didn't even know they were into them. I’m very happy for them but I can’t help but feel devastated that I am missing my most favorite band in the world again. 

I love them so much!

Day Twenty-two -- Purple Haze All In My Brain... Well, Close Enough.

So, I did it. I have purple hair. Unfortunately, I waited too late to take pictures, so I don’t have any nice pictures to share right now. I will describe it though. It’s a little dark (hell, it’s seriously dark!) for my taste but as the day went on and I played with it a bit, I decided that I like it. I wonder what it will look like when it fades a bit. I also wonder how it would look if I had lightened my hair more first. I might try that one day.

At this point, I would like Kanye West to interrupt my blog by saying, “I’m happy for you and your purple hair and I’mma let you finish, but I have to say that if I hear one more news story or comment about Beyoncé lip-syncing the National Anthem, well, I’m just gonna flip the fuck out!” And to him I would say, “Preach on brotha!” I mean, who cares and why is this news or a big deal to anyone (except maybe Ashlee Simpson lol)?

Okay, now that I’ve got that out of my system (kinda, sorta), I decided that I have to get out of here tomorrow. I think I’m going to take some work to Starbucks to do some work there, or maybe the library. I need to air out my brain a bit and the walk there should do that and I definitely need a change of scenery. I also have to get into Valentine’s Day mode and also work on those spring Pantone colors. I’m pretty excited about those. Though now I realize that I haven’t spoken about that on this particular blog. For those who don’t know, Pantone puts out a color forecast for Spring and Fall of the colors that are going to be prominent in fashion and such. Each season, I try to make jewelry using all of the colors of the forecast for that season. This time, I want to try to get them done before the season actually starts. I have just about 2 months before spring starts so that should give me plenty of time.

Day Twenty-one -- I May Be Scattered. A Little Shattered. What Does It Matter?

Today was a bit of a weird day, at least it started off that way. It started with a recurring dream I was having, that included The Silence from Doctor Who. Then I woke up with the thought in my head that Claudia Donovan (from Warehouse 13) would make an excellent companion. I’m sure because the last thing I watched last night was Warehouse 13. Still, she would be awesome. Although, I’m not sure if the Tardis would or would not appreciate all the tinkering that she would do. Somebody oughta get on that... with only 3 or 4 readers, I’m sure the idea probably won’t get to the right people any time soon.

Most of the day was spent with my mind feeling really scattered and I HATE that feeling. I couldn’t really concentrate on one thing long enough to do anything about it. I tried to do a little cleaning of some color and that helped a little bit. Oddly enough, coffee really took the edge off of it. You’d think it would do the exact opposite, but I’ve become resigned to the fact that I’m a bit of an anomaly. Unfortunately, before I even got to finish my coffee, we had to run off to Rob’s doctor’s appointment. I threw what was left of it into a travel mug and went off.

So today Rob was informed that his Diverticulitis was so mild that it was probably a bad case of colitis and after his run of antibiotics, he might be cool and not have to avoid nuts for the rest of his life. I don’t know why it took almost an hour to find that out but it was good to know. Between that, my wonky morning and a few errands afterwards, my day and evening were pretty much shot. Tomorrow is going to rock though. I demand that it is so. Besides, aren’t Tuesdays always awesome?

Before I go, I've been trying out this new thing for the past few days or so, if anyone has noticed... I'm using lyrics from songs for the titles of my blog posts. Tonights lyrics are from this song by the Foo Fighters.

Day Twenty -- Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before

So despite being knocked off my ass by the bead show yesterday… we went again today (I'm mayor now lol). I didn't buy anything there but a (outrageously tiny) brownie, a girl’s gotta eat sometime, but I did get to check out a Precious Metal Clay demonstration. It’s a lot less complicated than I thought and I can’t wait to get elbow deep in that stuff! Figuratively of course for there is no way that I can afford being actually elbow deep in it. I know Rob is very interested in it as well. I also noticed a few things that I didn't notice yesterday and I got a lot of cards and put my name down on a couple mailing lists.

After the bead show, we went to San Gabriel Bead Company which I had never been to before. Unfortunately, we got there around 20 minutes before closing so I didn't get the chance to peruse the merchandise like I would have liked to, but I did get nine tubes of seed beads. If I had more money, I would probably need a back brace to carry it all. Nah, I’m a bit more frugal than that, but I would've loved to get more colors. The beads look like a very good quality, (I haven’t opened them yet but the tubes are clear and they look excellent). I can’t wait to work with them. I’ll probably start tomorrow. It’ll give me something to do while Rob is at the doctor’s office. I really want to get back in the swing of things and I think my recent purchases are just the things I need to do it. I can’t wait. But then, I said that before didn't I? I should quit before I get too redundant.

Crap, I realized that I forgot to take pics of stuff I bought yesterday. Okay, here's one of SOME of it, taken on the fly.

Ooh! Shiny!!  ...wait, that's my other blog.

Day Nineteen -- No TV Party Tonight...

Today was an awesome day and I got some really great supplies. It was made more fun by my awesome companions Kristine and Liz. I totally forgot my list of things that I wanted to look out for but I know that at least a few of the things I got were things I wanted to get. I’m thinking I might wait until tomorrow to post pictures of the stuff I got. I’m so wiped out I can barely type. So yeah, today’s blog, a wee little one. I even took a nap a few sentences ago (naps are hardly ever a good idea for me). Tomorrow, I’ll be a lot more alert to write a nice entry. I’m not even going to mention this fiasco of a blog on Facebook.

Sad as it is though, it took a really great day to tire me out this much. Oh, and a bit of back pain.

Maybe tomorrow I'll even explain why I'm going to bed with "TV Party Tonight" by Black Flag stuck in my head.

Day Eighteen -- Ask me, I won't say no. How could I?

So I’ve been walking around with a spring in my step all day. It’s not just because I didn’t feel as sick today as I had been the past few days. What’s had me all excited and feeling lighter than air is that I’m going to the Pasadena Bead and Design show tomorrow. It’s the first time I’ve been to a bead show in quite a long time and I’m actually going to have money to buy stuff. I’ve already got my lunch in the fridge packed up and ready to go. I bought a (cheap) water bottle that I can roll up and stash in my purse when I’m done with it. I’ve got my show purse packed with plenty of room left over for goodies. The only thing I don’t have laid out is what I’m going to wear tomorrow, but I do have an idea. Excited I am!

On another note… every night I sit here wondering what to talk about, trying to decipher out of thin air, what the 3 or 4 people who read my blog would like to know. Unfortunately, I’m not that psychic. So, I thought it would be cool if you who read this would put in the comments any questions you would like to ask me or what you would like my snarky take on. I’m pretty honest about things and if I don’t want to talk about something I’ll say so. Besides, I think it would be fun to do… and no, it’s not just me being lazy about coming up with things to write about. :-P

Day Seventeen -- Sick Day

Another short one today, mainly because I felt a bit ill most of the day. I thought it was going to wear off by mid-morning like my morning grog usually does but I still feel ill even now. The worst part was the nausea but I also felt really oogly-eyed and my head was a bit waa-waa. That description would make more sense if you could see the accompanying hand gestures. I did actually get 2 projects finished today. That made me happy. But other than that, not much went on today.  Frankly, I’m tired and I just want to go to bed.  In the meantime, here are two pictures I took a few days ago I liked the way my hair looked so I took a few pictures.

 I should've written down last night's dream when it was fresh, then I'd have something rather interesting to talk about. Now I only vaguely remember most of it. I was at a cupcake place in Hollywood with my mom where she started shoving them into her mouth before I even got a good look at the menu. The place had a weird name and I think it might be a real place but I can't remember the name. Then this short, muscly, black guy decided to pick a fight with me and I mopped the floor with him. During the fight he did this weird thing where he was shifting from trash talking to a sort of whimpering, whiny talking.  I wish I could remember it more in detail because that ish was cray-cray... so to speak. 

I'm off to bed now. 

Day Sixteen -- A Bit of A Windfall

Okay so this is going to be short I guess, because I'm starting this with less than 10 minutes left to the day.

Today was a great day. Well, kinda. I listened to the rest of Fool Moon by Jim Butcher. It’s the second in the Dresden Files series. It was awesome! I kept rewinding bits because I didn’t want to miss one iota of it. I did it also because I fell asleep during part of it, but not because of the book. It’s because I made the bad mistake of laying on my bed with the sun coming through while listening to it. Who wouldn’t fall into a blissful sleep in that situation?

I went to my Optifast class today and took some of my jewelry. I got an advance on a bracelet order and I also had some put on reserve for another person. This is great because now I’ll have some money when I go to the bead show this Saturday. I was so sure that I was going to get there and be completely broke, but I was going to go anyway to take a look at the new trends and such. I am very happy! I mean, I’d love to go to one of these with a few hundred dollars at my disposal but that won’t happen for some time but I’ve got a nice chunk of change to have some pretties to show and make into awesome stuff.

I’m going to go now because it’s late and the blog almost completely slipped my mind. But I always get it in. 

Day Fifteen -- A Bowl Full of "Goulash" Then Back To Work

This is tonight’s dinner.

Rob, upon seeing the picture: I remember that one! 

Me: No you don't.

Rob: Yes I do, it was good.

Me: I made it just now.

Rob: Oh... Well, it looks like something you made before.

Me: ::facepalm::

I show this picture because it was freaking awesome. And even though at this point, I haven't eaten any of it, I know this because I had it the night before, well, minus one thing…

It looks like some kind of Indian dish but it’s not. One ingredient I guess you could say is Indian. What I did was boil some chicken tenderloins with this Mediterranean style vegetable mix from Ralphs. Once done, I put it on a bed of Basmati rice (the Indian ingredient, also, the ingredient missing from the night before). Then I heated up some Tomato Basil Bisque from Vons (also awesome over potatoes) and poured some of it over all, just enough to coat it well but not to be too soupy. My sister would call it “Goulash”. She called everything I ever made that was remotely stew-like, “Goulash”. She also called my Barley Casserole, “Oatmeal stew” which is funny because it wasn’t particularly stew-like at all… but that’s a recipe for a different night.

So I got myself a cup of coffee tonight, sorry, Rob got it for me. I plan on staying up pretty late and actually getting some work done since I’ve been so dysfunctional the past several days. Really though, it’s just been too cold for my brain to work right… and the pharmaceuticals of course. I decided to try to tough out any pain today and just stick with the muscle relaxer but forego the Norco. Hopefully that’s going to help quite a bit. The sad thing is that it’s already 9:30 as I type this and I haven’t gotten anything done today. Hell, I don’t know what the fuck I did today. Yes, I cursed. It’s been that damn frustrating. Though I must admit that that is nowhere near the entirety of the tip of the iceberg that represents the amount of foul language I use on a daily basis :-D …but I digress.

 I think I was foolish enough to think that I’d just have a bit of pain for a couple of days and then be just fine. On top of that, when I haven’t been too sleepy to do anything, we've been on errands or going off on another trip to urgent care, or in the case of today, going for follow-up blood tests and shopping for bland food for Rob, including the previously mentioned Basmati rice. I actually got up early, like WAY early, today, after a night of having a hard time getting to sleep. After going to the bathroom at 6 in the morning and feeling wide awake after I got back in bed, I said screw it, I’m going to get up and do stuff.  My desk chair is right next to a window so I was sitting there and even though the window is closed, cold oozed out and engulfed me like creeping death. I stayed alert enough to make some future business purchases decisions, but next thing I knew, it was already 9. The time seemed to have gone by so fast and I felt like I got nothing done. I was also freezing my butt off. So I crawled back into bed and blasted a hair dryer under the covers for a bit. Then I hastily fell asleep to wake back up at 11.

So, tonight, I’m going to foolishly try to make up for the past week of deficit in the productivity department.  I know, I’ll probably only put a small dent into it. But if I get anything at all done, I’ll be happy. 

Day Fourteen -- Maybe tomorrow...

Wow, I almost completely forgot to do my blog post today. I’m not surprised though. I’ve been out of it all day. This fog has certainly put a damper on my creativity. I have all these beads sitting in front of me and they just weren't speaking to me. My Fire Mountain Gem’s catalog came in the mail today (and, unfortunately, not the beads I recently bought online. I can’t wait until they get here!) So I was going to relax on the bed and do a bit of “window” shopping; basically marking things that I would consider buying. I thought it would be good for inspiration as well. Too bad I decided to take a pain pill for my back shortly before because it totally. knocked. me. out! That didn't help my foggy brain situation at all. I just haven’t been myself today and I don’t like it! On top of that, I feel a bit nauseous tonight. Yeck! I haven’t had coffee in a few days so tomorrow, I’m going to make a nice strong cup and see if that helps any. The cold also makes doing things rather difficult and I can’t wait for it to warm up here. Not hot though, I’m not down for that either. I don’t mind a slight chill in the air, just don’t freeze my butt off. Thank you. I wish I had an electric blanket.

Rob is feeling better which is good. He still has a bit of abdominal pain but he’s getting there. I’ve been giving him Powerade and chicken broth. He’s been recuperating in bed, fiddling with his Nexus 7 all day. Tomorrow, he gets to start eating solids. Bland solids. Woo Hoo!

I’m going to go to bed early tonight and pretend this day didn't happen. Okay, most of this day because there is one thing that happened today that was so awesome, but I’m not going to talk about that yet. I’ll just say that some people totally ROCK!  Maybe tomorrow, I can come back into my body and actually feel like a real person.  

Day Thirteen -- Sleepless Night at Urgent Care

Okay so I am getting this blog entry in a bit late but with good reason. I’m going to still count it as the entry for the 13^th though, especially under the circumstances of the day…

First of all, I couldn’t sleep last night. In fact, I’ve been awake now for at least 40 hours. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m frequently up very late very often but that’s because I like being up late, never, well hardly ever because I can’t sleep. Whenever I decide to go to bed, I don’t have a problem falling asleep. Not last night though. Around 6 I thought maybe I was feeling sleepy but not really. After a while, I decided that there was no use in even trying to go to sleep.  All in all it was a rough day. I was trying to make jewelry and nothing was looking right to me, so I gave up on that, well, a couple times actually.

However, today’s excitement doesn’t really happen until later in the evening, and this is also why this blog entry is being posted so late. Rob had been feeling pretty bad for a while and I discovered that he spoke to his mom about taking him to urgent care. He almost didn’t want to go but I told him he had to go. He said I didn’t have to go but I did anyway. I’m glad I did because he was there for a very long time. They took blood and gave him a CT Scan. It turns out that he has diverticulitis. It’s something his brother also has. Luckily, it seems we caught it before it got too bad. He was able to come home tonight, with a couple prescriptions, of course, and he has to stay home for a couple of days. In a way, it’s sort of a blessing because he could really use the time off, and luckily as well, he has a lot of sick days available.

-->Rob, just after the CT scan and waiting on some paperwork so we can go home.

So now, without further ado, I’m going to go to bed because I am SOOOO sleepy and SOOOO cold! 

...and I can't concentrate anymore.

Day Twelve -- Can You Say, "Last Minute"?

Ack! It’s 11:35 pm and I haven’t written anything for my blog yet!!!

Well, that’s a great start isn’t it?  Today I have been trying to work on this particular necklace but well, the meds are still making my concentration almost nonexistent. I did get a nice chunk of it done though. Other than that, Rob and I decided to make it a Terry Pratchett evening. We watched the Color of Magic and then Going Postal.  There’s really nothing else that went on today. I did have this funny dream that I’m pretty sure is a recurring-ish dream. You know, when dreams are almost the same but you know there’s little differences in the plot or outcome? Anyway, in this dream, it was sort of like a Leverage episode… including most of the cast of Leverage. I don’t remember seeing Sophie or Nate there though. The villain in this dream was played by John Travolta of all people. That sounds funny enough but the funniest bit about that is that through the last half of the dream, he was disguised as a black girl in a pink track suit and with long fingernails and long, curly blond braids... needless to say, (s)he was sassy, but I wasn’t fooled. I knew it was him and I was trying to convince this old lady that it was the bad guy. Of course, in the end, he was caught by the police, thanks to me and my team. Now, When I dreamed this before, I don’t think the Leverage guys were there and I’m not so sure about John Travolta. But the setting and circumstances have definitely been dreamt of before.

I also had a dream that one of my turtles was actually male and they had babies. Lots of them. I have had this dream a few times recently. I wonder what it means. It has to mean something or why else does it keep popping up. What sucks is I’ll probably never figure it out because my subconscious messages are never, and I mean NEVER clear enough for me to understand. I feel totally gypped where that is concerned. I would give anything to have my messages, which I’m sure I must get all the time, be crystal clear. Oh well.

Whew! Finished just in time!

Day Eleven -- A Dream And A "Dream"

First off, I’ll describe the literal dream:

I had this dream this morning that I was staying with my mom and my sister was there too and I knew there were aliens living in the walls but no one believed me. Then I was in the kitchen about to plug something into the outlet but I dropped the plug in water so I dried it off the best I could and plugged it in anyway. Nothing happened so I walked away for a bit but then I heard a noise and turned around. There were blue flames sputtering out of the outlet I yelled for someone to go get the fire extinguisher because I knew my mom had a small one in the apartment but she runs out and down the stairs to get a big one from outside. By the time she comes back, the cabinets above the outlet and stove were pretty much gutted out by the fire. Still the fire had just about put itself out and this little creature that was a bit on fire comes wobbling out and kinda leans over the bottom of the cabinet like it’s passing out and the flames die out on him as well. He kinda reminded me of an Adipose but with more shape. So I run out to go show my mom, yelling something like, “I told you they were there! Come look!” so we get there and there’s nothing. We look all through the burnt out cabinets but see nothing but charred wood. Then I remember that the central air was on when I saw him fall out of the wall and that maybe if I turned it back on it would come out again. So of course, I turn it on and nothing happens. I don’t remember much else of what happened after that.

This is an Adipose, from Doctor Who.
Just imagine it with a more defined head, neck and waist and  you'll kinda get the picture of what was in my dream.

Now for the figurative “Dream”:

I have a lot of thinking to do. I got an email from the Silver Lake Art Craft and Vintage Market informing me that I can get a permanent booth for the year for only $420 and I would LOVE to be able to have a regular gig like this. That’s only 35 dollars per month! I don’t have that kind of money and I mentioned it on Facebook. A friend suggested I start a GoFundMe.com campaign to get donations for the money needed for the booth (I am also going to add a little bit to the goal so that I can get supplies to up my inventory and mainly, to cover fees). On the surface, it seems easy enough: Ask for money, people give it to me, get the booth. The complications arise here… First, I thought maybe I should do an all or nothing campaign so that if I don’t make the full amount, no one gets charged anything and I just go about my business and just go month by month as I can afford it, even though it would be more expensive in the long run. If I go that route, I would have to have reward levels. I figured in that case I could just give gift certificates that match the donations in increments of 5, 10, 15…etc dollars. But then I worry that I don't know enough people who would support me in such a way. Also, I figure I’d have to get the money in by the beginning of February (I’m going to check with the people running the market to make sure) to be able to get the deal. I don’t know if I’ll be able to earn that much in that short amount of time.

I’m going to go ahead and do it. If nothing comes of it, so be it. I do like having the option that if I don’t raise enough then no one gets charged and with the reward levels they are getting something equivalent to their donation. That makes me feel better about asking for money. I’m used to having to do things on my own with little support. But I am always very grateful for the support I get. 

Day Ten -- Recuperating

I almost forgot to blog today, mainly because I’m up to my eyeballs in painkillers. Okay so maybe not that much. But it sure feels like it. I’m not exactly fond of how it makes my brain feel like Jell-O. It’s also making me have a hard time thinking about what to write about today.

Today was a rough day. I wanted to do things, make stuff but the fog in my head had made everything I attempted more challenging than I expected. I spent much of the day laying down as well. I am feeling quite a bit better though. No more tears but still a bunch of “ow’s”  I’m expecting to feel even much better tomorrow.

With that, I’m cutting this blog short. I’m injured and on drugs. I shouldn't feel bad about not having much to say. I would have a lot to say about only a few people bothering to inquire if I’m okay, but I won’t go there. People would say I’m a whiny baby but come on. I do have the right to feel this way and wonder where my friends are. I know I have very few anyway but really? But that’s all I’m going to say about that and if anyone mentions it at a later date, I’m going to blame it on the drugs.

I think I’m going to go make something or at least start something before I go to sleep.

Day Nine -- I've Fallen and Getting Up Hurt Like a MOFO...

So today I did something that I have been putting off forever. FOREVER! And now I’m so glad that I’ve finally done it and it will no longer be a weight on me. I have to do this more often. Most of the time (one would hope) the stress due to putting things off and the unwarranted, okay sometimes it’s warranted, fear about what could happen if that issue is dealt with is so much worse and more hard on you than actually dealing with the problem. I could easily say that right now, I’m going to meet all challenges head on and whip them all into submission, but that’s not going to happen. I can only do my best day by day and maybe one day I will be that type of kick-ass person. But I don’t think this is something that I can just one day decide to do and have it be written in stone.

Just like this whole blogging every day for a year thing. It’s a challenge, and day by day I’m succeeding, but I know that it probably won’t take much for me to miss a day. Nonetheless, day by day I try to get it done. I think the key is to not beat myself up if I ever slip up and miss a day, or not meet a challenge head on, as I spoke about before. There are so many improvements that I would love to make and because of this, I know I can easily get overwhelmed by it all. That’s because I’m a sort of, “think big and try to do everything at once, fail miserably and then go into stagnation until the next batch of ideas pop up” kind of person. I see where it’s gotten me (nowhere.) but old habits die hard.

So now, I guess my prime goal is to take on all my other goals individually and not crowd myself and try to do everything at once. I am assuming that the better I get at this, the more confident I’ll be at tackling each goal and thus having better success in achieving them. My biggest hurdles are procrastination, what I have self-diagnosed as Adult ADHD and lack of self-confidence where I need it most.

Good thing I wrote all of this earlier today because early this evening, I had a fall, and now I'm on pain meds that seem to want to take their own sweet time in working. Back pain really sucks. This isn't the kind of excitement I wanted for material to blog about... :-(

No pic today. I'm gonna go to bed and sleep for a couple days... except for the bit of time I take to write tomorrow's blog. Yes, I'm gonna do it, because I'm a boss!

Day Eight -- More Beads Please...

I’ve spent much of today looking through bead patterns, thinking about the next thing I want to make. In other words, I’ve now chosen about 20 or so that I want to make and haven’t started any of them yet… and that’s just for the ones that I’m pretty positive that I have all the supplies for. I’ve decided that I don’t have nearly enough beads… Likely story you might say, but it’s true, considering all the things I want to make and finding out each time that I don’t have all the beads I need to make it. It would be so much easier if there were any good LBS’s around. That’s Local Bead Store for you lay people. There are great stores in Downtown LA and I hear there are a couple good ones in Santa Clarita. But I wish there was at least ONE that I could go to any day, on the spur of the moment to pick up specific beads for any particular project.

As for shopping online for beads, the only problem there is that there is so much that it’s hard to choose from and I don’t get to see anything in person. Another big problem is that I want to get the best prices so I spend too much time comparing sometimes. One thing that pisses me off is every time a bead show rolls around, I don’t have enough money to bother attending them. There is a bead show coming on the weekend of the 18^th through 20^th this month and right now I do have a nice little bit of money (and hoping to get a little bit more before then). I won’t be breaking any banks but I should be able to get a few things to supplement my stash.   I’m very excited because I think it's been a couple of years since I’ve been to one. Well, at least it seems like a couple years. I’m not all that sure as my memory isn’t the best when it comes to dates. I just have to keep any emergencies or stupid, non-bead-related purchases at bay in the meantime. Fingers crossed. 

Since I like adding photos to my blog, here's one that was sort of an accident. It was the day I was taking pics of the hat I made. I saw a cat that I wanted to take a picture of so I zoomed in to get a good shot of it. Afterwards, I turn the lens back to myself for more hat pictures and forgot to zoom out again.

I decided to play around with the colors and stuff and this is the result.

Day Seven -- Hope For a Better Tomorrow

So it’s 11:18 pm as I write this and I still don’t know what to write about. There was a change of plans today. I was going to work on some jewelry but it wound up being a cleaning day.  And who wants to read a blog about me cleaning? I did start listening to Fool Moon by Jim Butcher. It is the second in the Dresden Files series. It’s a great book so far. So much better than the first one and the first one wasn’t bad at all. Now that I've said that, I once again have nothing to talk about.  Oh poo.

Maybe I should end it at that. I said I would blog every day, whether I've had an exciting day or not. Most days are not exciting, but this day was like the black hole of interesting. NOTHING interesting happened today except for listening to the book. If tomorrow is the same way. I think I might have to run out of the front door naked just to spice things up, or even worse, I might resort to posting some of my old poetry. No one wants to see either of those things happen so keep your fingers crossed that tomorrow is better. 

In the meantime, here's an awesome picture of a sea turtle. Enjoy. 

Day Six -- Earring Fail!

So I found this picture of a pair of earrings. I thought they were pretty so I wanted to make something similar. I've been working on it most of the day trying to figure out the best thread path and this is what I came up with:

I was going to try to not have beads invade this blog so soon and I suppose this should go on my Ooh Shiny! blog, but since it took a nice chunk of my day it’s going here. Frankly, I  am not very pleased with how it turned out. The pattern is great, but I’m not happy with the colors nor the way it lays. Sad to say, I’m going to have to take it apart. This was totally a spur of the moment thing and so I’m not TOO disappointed. That being said, I would've loved for what I worked on all day to have not been such a fail. It was definitely a learning experience. Now I know what I have to do. Next time I work on it, I’m going to have to take more time out in picking out the colors and size of the larger beads. I think they are a bit too big for the design. In the meantime, I’m going to work on something else that I've been meaning to get to. Hopefully it’ll be a quick little project...

So I paused writing this to work on that "quick little project". Apparently, I've forgotten how to do it since it’s been so long.  So on to the next project. I probably won’t get anything else started tonight since it’s kinda late and Rob and I have been enjoying episodes of Warehouse 13 all afternoon/evening. But I’m planning tomorrow to put on an audio-book and dive deep into some beads. 

Day 5 -- Nothing to see here...

I almost wanted to just skip the blog writing today. That’s how LITTLE has happened today.  I woke up with pain in both shoulder joints so I took some arthritis strength Tylenol, and wouldn’t you know it, it knocked me out.  I didn’t get up until after 1. The rest of the day has been a bit of a haze.

I did decide to watch Once Upon A Time from the beginning. Turns out I missed a lot more of it than I thought. But other than that, I did nothing today. Well, nothing of note.  I hate days like that but it happens and I guess it’s needed at times to just not do anything. Crap! I just remembered that I forgot to meditate. Oh well. 

Since this post is so small, I will share a picture. It's a flower called "Echinopsis Chamaecerus April Dawn". Yep, it's a flower with my name... and believe it or not, it's not the only one, but it's the one I'm sharing tonight. Pretty isn't it? Kinda like me... bright and prickly!  :-D

Day Four -- Introducing: Sissyboo.

Tonight’s blog is going to be kept short because I’m having stomach issues. Speaking of that, I ought to introduce you all to Sissyboo. Sissyboo is me, when I’m having stomach issues. One day, quite a few years ago, my stomach was upset, as it is today and Rob asked me if there was anything he could do to help. Out of the blue, I said, “You can rub my belly and call me ‘Sissyboo’.” (I don’t even know what strange nook or cranny of my mind that came from) He did and the term stuck! So on days like today, I’ll lie down and Rob will rub my belly and say “Awww, I love you Sissybooo…”  It actually does help a bit. SO today I’m having a Sissyboo moment so I’ll try not to linger even though most of the time taken here will be due to editing pictures…

Of my new hat!

 I thought I might be done by tomorrow, but I was done by just after noon, and that was only because of how many times I had unravel it to get it how I wanted it to be. Actually, last night I got up to the green band. I went to bed around 3, even though I said I wasn’t going to do that anymore. Old habits die hard. Though this time, I got up shortly after Rob left for work, so I’m guessing about 7:30 am and I felt just fine. I grabbed the hat and realized that it was WAY too big. So I unraveled it to the crown, I guess that’s what you call the flat top part, and got rid of the last ring so that it would have a smaller diameter. I had to wing it after that because the stitch count would be off for the rest of the hat. I also added another two rows, one single crochet, one double, because I wanted the hat to be less shallow.  No worries though. I managed it just fine. I’m a Crochet Goddess, remember? So now I have a really cool hat that everyone so far likes.

Rob modeling the hat

Well, I’m gonna go because sleep is trying to catch up to me, but mainly, Sissyboo wants to lie down. 

Day Three: I'm a Crochet Goddess!

Tonight’s Blog is delayed, but only about an hour and a half because I couldn't get my pictures on the computer because my phone wasn't connecting (I love that I can wirelessly send things from my phone to my computer!) and then I discovered that they were blurry so I had to take new pictures.  Anyway, they're done so now I get to share some cool pictures.

So, most of today was uneventful, which was cool. I discovered that going to bed at 1 am wasn't much better than going to bed at 3. Either that, or my bed is evil. I’m kinda leaning towards the latter these days, especially because of how I feel when I get up in the morning. If you are wondering if I got to my to-do list today, I haven’t even looked at it. I did meditate longer today, just because the first guided meditation I decided to try didn't help one bit. It got a bit weird and I kept zoning out at the exact same moment and rewinding to try to make it through. I had to give up on it after a bit. It kinda reminded me of the time I rode the It’s a Small World ride at Disneyland. I went into some weird trance and didn't remember most of the ride by the time I snapped out of it. Hmm, that ride might have to go on the “evil” list… but I digress. After a short search, I found this one thing where it’s just weird noises and is supposed to subliminally, or something, work on your pineal gland, whatever that’s for. It was 15 minutes long and I came out of it feeling very relaxed which is a good thing. It wasn't guided so I didn't feel so bad about my mind wandering. Wow, epiphany: maybe I should forget about the guided meditations and just do stuff like the weird noise stuff.  Gee, this blog is being helpful already!

Around 3 today, I texted Rob, asking if he wanted to go to Starbucks after he got off work. I got a resounding “Hell yes!” So that’s what we did. I thought about bringing some beading to work on, but instead opted to finish the belt that I was crocheting for my mom.  Well, I finished it and it turned out AWESOME! It’s probably the first non-scarf/blanket-like thing I've ever made. I know my mom is going to love it!

Full Belt

Lacing detail

 Now with more confidence in my crocheting skills, I started a hat before we left Starbucks. It’s a pattern that I found online.  I think I might be finished with it in a day or so, depending on how much time I devote to it tomorrow. Whether finished or not, I’ll show pics of my progress tomorrow night.

Day Two: That's some crazy looking fruit!!

Slow day today. I did my usual ignoring of my to-do list. I mean well, but this blog isn't called “True Adventures of the Easily Distracted” for nothing. I did take pictures of a bracelet that I recently made. I also took pictures of my babies, Shelly and Sheila. They are both over 4 years old …and turtles… but they are still my babies.  The bulk of my day went towards straightening my hair. I’m not happy with it at the moment but I’ll give it a day or two.

The babies say "Hi!"

I also tried meditating today; one of my occasional attempt to “meditate more” and even with a guided meditation (Deepak Chopra) my mind was ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE.  Maybe it was Deepak’s voice that wasn't working for me. Maybe I should’ve meditated after my shower instead of beforehand and I would've been more relaxed. And maybe, just maybe, I should realize that this was the first time I've tried meditating in a very long time and that I will improve with time and constancy.  Tomorrow, I’m going to check out YouTube to see if there’s anything on there that I vibe with better.

So there you have it. Nothing too exciting happened today, though Wednesdays won’t be very exciting for a while. I do know one thing though:  If I want to be productive in the mornings, it would probably be best to stop going to bed after 3 am as I did last night. 

Oh I forgot, something kinda exciting did happen tonight. I discovered some scary fruit while shopping for groceries tonight:

They call it Buddha Hand Citrus, I call it CTHULHU FRUIT!!! 

NOT a New Year's Resolution... But Something.

I was sitting here at my desk thinking about blogs and New Year’s challenges and random stuff like that. Then this came to mind: I wonder what would happen if I challenged myself to do a personal blog entry every day this year. Maybe I’ll start today. Okay, I’ll start today. I know myself though and while I’ll try to do it every day, I’ll be happy if I make it a few times a week. But if I end up skipping more than a week between entries, well, I’ll just have to spank myself or something.  Volunteers can inquire in the comments. ::She says, only half-jokingly::

On first thought, I was thinking that not enough happens in my life to make doing a daily blog worthwhile or interesting. Then I thought. Maybe my real goal should be to make every day something to blog about. Can I manage that? I’ll sure try. I’m not going to go be a ninja, a big game hunter or a tightrope walker or anything like that but I will try to take more risks and do more of what I want to do other than second guessing myself all the time or doing what I think is expected of me. 

…okay, maybe I’ll do a *little* ninja-ing. We’ll see.

Ready to ninja at a moment's notice...