Halloween photos!

We had a nice Halloween!  Ron and I decided to go as Fred and Daphne from Scooby Doo.  There were pre-packaged costumes so no work on our part.  We headed off to the party in Independence, not knowing hardly anyone.  All the people were super friendly and awesome.  What a great group!  They were also really creative and fun with their costumes.  Due to the cats though we could only stay a couple hours but it was worth the trip.

Here are some photos from the night.  I will probably get names wrong, sorry in advance!



My Daphne costume



Ron as Fred



Detail of the Glory Hole costume



Liz, I can't remember her husband's name and Ronnie's "penis" in the background



This is the normal look I give my husband, even out of costume.  Notice the "Scooby" at our feet.  Dogs can smell a dog lover in the room!



My beautiful friend Summer who rocks in so many ways



Summer and I....I feel like the Amazon woman with no neck in this photo!

Hope everyone else had a good Halloween!

Rheumatoid arthritis

Lately I've been feeling a lot better mentally and physically.  Some days I think I can go back to a 40 hour work week.  And then I hit a set back.  I paid really close attention to my symptoms this week though and tried to analyze things as they came up.  I'm too lazy and inconsistent to do a symptom diary though.  Yes, I lick ass.  Such is life.

I thought perhaps if I avoided stress completely, kept up on sleep and all my medications, I would be able to control my health.  How egomaniac is that?  You can't control everything.  You can be doing everything right, everything within your control, and still feel like shit.  It really hit me on Friday.  I had organized a potluck for Halloween at work, assisted a researcher all morning and then watched the desk most of the afternoon.  I did some running around and helped people out.  By 1:00 I could feel a weight in my chest and the skin on my face was red and felt like it was on fire.  By the end of the afternoon I was really run down.  When I got home, I felt like there was a fire lit in my torso, my knees were stiff and sore and I was limping.  I was shaking a lot too.

I really did have a good week overall.  I was able to participate in some professional development and networking at a symposium.  I got some things done at work.  I cut out some toxic people from my life too which felt extremely liberating.

My point:  I did everything seemingly right but I had a flare up nonetheless.  I was just tired out.  I did too much and my body rebelled.  What's really hard is that I know to people who don't know me well, I look pretty healthy.  I'm young and not toooooo overweight.  I think it's hard for people to understand that you can look great on the outside but feel shitty on the inside.  However, when I think about it....I must not look too healthy all the time.  I've had strangers offer to help me carry my groceries and insist on having me do the drive through pick-up.  Some days I lean heavily on the shopping cart and limp along.  Or days when my elbows and arms ache so bad, I hold them close to my body and have a hard time picking up the littlest thing.  So I guess when I think about it, there are people who intuitively pay attention to body language more than others.  Those are the kinds of people who pick up on this stuff.

So lesson learned.  I can't always control when a flare up occurs.  Gotcha.  I'll keep that in mind.

Catching up

Here is a quick recap:  We've kept somewhat busy on the weekends which can be both good and bad.  We finally used our free tickets to the KC Renaissance Festival and had a nice time eating a turkey leg and drinking Irish ale.  Also in the last couple of weeks we saw Zombieland and Paranormal Activity.  Both very awesome.  If you are looking for a laugh, I highly recommend Zombieland.  Speaking of zombies, Maul of the Dead is at the Coterie and Roxanne and I saw that last weekend.  It was pretty fun!  Great theatre group, everyone should go!  What else...oh!  A good friend from high school dropped in and it was awesome catching up with him.  I really miss familiar faces from home!

We are also still going through the home buyer's program.  Our counselor thinks we'll be in the purchasing phase soon.  I really hope that's true!  We'll see though.  We may hit a waiting period but that's ok.  I'm totally cool with moving in the spring rather then the winter.  Either way, we are hiring movers this time!  I can't physically help Ron lift half this stuff so we'll need a little help.  I'm so freakin' excited and scared.  Basically I'm scared of the realities of fixing everything yourself....and having to pay for it.  I think I can handle it though.

I recently had a really negative experience with some people I used to call friends.  However I did get something positive from the situation:  I've let my diseases and illnesses shut me off from people.  I'm really going to try to talk to people more often and get together with locals at least once a month or so.  It can be really tough sometimes...when I'm tired out, I just need to rest.  Sleep.  Recharge.  A lot of things like housework and socializing get neglected when you don't feel well.  Unfortunately these people, who I thought knew what was going on, took my absences personally.  As if I didn't like them and was using my health as a reason not to see them.  I think that's pretty silly and thought if a person felt upset, they would talk to me about it.  But whatever makes a person feel good about themselves...  It feels really, really wonderful to cut out negative people from my life.  No more stress on that front...what a relief!  Now if I can only get work to go a little better, I think things would be perfect!

Here are images of the last three projects I worked on.  I have some ideas of things I need and want to do soon.  Some of them involve Christmas presents.  I better get started on those!  November will probably go very quickly.


Come Get Some tote bag feature the almighty Bruce Campbell!



The first of the 1898 Antikamnia Calendar series.



This was a piece done to recognize domestic abuse.  Yes, it's a personal story.  No, not going to blog about it.  However you can check out Craftster if you want to know more about the piece.  Enough said on that.

Rowdy is shrieking at me to go outside so I'm cutting off the blog for now.  Expect some goofy Halloween pictures next week!

Mas besser

Things are better.  Why you ask?  Well I got a new endocrinologist who agreed to ramp up my Synthroid a bit.  Yes, my levels appeared normal but I didn't feel right.  Most docs at this point would argue it's all in my head, it's the RA, it's the fibro, I'm crazy, etc.  This one actually agreed to let me try a higher dose.  And guess what?  I feel better!  More energy, less depressed.  What a concept-listening to the patient.  Gnarly.

We also had our first one-on-one meeting with a NACA representative.  Although she is an ardent animal hater, we were happy with our session.  If all goes well, Ron and I will be in our first home together in around 6 months.  No money down, no closing costs, fixed rate, low mortgage.  No shit.  I was so happy to hear that, I had to do another self-evaluation of my priorities.  Is it more important for me to find my dream job right now?  Or is getting a home and being settled more important?  Unfortunately I'm putting my career second, or third.  I want to be happy with my job everyday but uprooting again and moving to a different state is going to be so hard.  I'm just starting to feel better and don't want to start over with doctors.  Therefore I decided to withdraw my applications for jobs out of state.  I'm really excited to be in my very first home!!

We've also got a lot to do this weekend.  It's cold though so that might limit how much we do.  Today is another Zombie Walk which starts at 3:00 on the Plaza.  The high is only 49 degrees today so I'm unsure if I really want to run around outside.  Speaking of zombies, we also really want to see Zombieland this weekend.  Perhaps we'll do that instead.  And tomorrow night we have tickets to see Lewis Black, one of Ron's favorite comedians.  We're pretty geeked about that!

Finally, here is my cross-stitch that I referred to in a previous post.  The recipient received it so I was able to make the photo public finally.  I kind of miss this piece.  It looked good sitting in our living room.



I did a piece yesterday for a Craftster challenge and I'll have that posted by Monday.  I'm also working on a piece I patterned after an obscure 1898 calendar.  Hopefully that will be done soon.  I've got to stitch something together to trade with a woman at work who makes and fixes jewelry.  I've got some things for her to fix!

That is about all I can think of for now.  This is a busy month so I'm sure there will be more blog posts to come.  Tschus!

Things to do to pass (waste) time

We hit the jackpot this weekend at Game Co.  It's like Game Stop only more vintage, and they pay a lot more for your games.  We got a nice credit with them and picked up several used games.  I was pretty geeked to find two Evil Dead games on XBox:



I haven't played A Fistful of Boomstick yet but I did play Regeneration for over an hour today.  It is HILARIOUS.  Ted Raimi does the voice of your midget Deadite sidekick and Bruce does Ash's voice, of course.  There are a lot of catchy one-liners and general hilarity.  The best part?  You can lock on your enemies and punt the Deadite to attack them.  I love it!    Since having an XBox is relatively new to me, I didn't pay much attention to these games before.  I now have all the ED games but not all the games with Bruce's voice.  Which is ok, as I'm not sure how much of a geek I want to allow myself to be.  Here is a link to the games: http://www.bruce-campbell.com/group.asp?grp=49

Crap, I just noticed this as well: http://www.bruce-campbell.com/pilot.asp?pg=action_figure It's a BC action figure.  Crap....$60?  I may be a geek,  but I'm a cheap geek.  Damn.

The other thing I did this weekend was finish up a book called Shadow of the Wind.  It is one of the best novels I have read since The Historian.  The author, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, writes very descriptively.  The setting is 1940's and 1950's Barcelona, set in the aftermath of Spain's civil war.  It's a mystery and very well woven.  I'm sure I could have figured out some of the twists and turns if I had let myself think about it, but I really enjoy just letting a story take me along.  I can't write a good review on it but you can find some great reviews on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Ruiz-Zafon/dp/1594200106  Apparently The Angel's Game is a prequel that just came out in English only a year ago.  I'll have to grab that up soon.



Long story short, read it.  I was dubious at first but I went from summer beach reading to this book.  You have to get your brain in the right mode to really let the story suck you in.   If you read it, let me know what you think!  I should really join a book club but am too damn lazy.

I also finished another cross stitch but will have to wait to unveil it until after I send it.  I made it for a swap for a photo group I participate in on Flickr called Phat Quarter.  After the recipient receives the piece, I'll post photos of it.  It's actually very lovely if I do say so myself!  I also finished an embroidery not long ago that is for a breast cancer awareness challenge on Craftster.  It's another photograph-to-embroidery piece:



This photo has over 12,000 hit on Flickr, but that's probably only because my boobs are partially showing.  I hate that pervs are looking at it but the photo has done some good.  I've had some people contact me to ask about the reconstructive part of mastectomies.  I personally feel better having talked to someone who has gone through this shit before me, no matter what it is.  So I keep the damn picture up for others to find, in case anyone else has questions.  The contest on Craftster starts in a couple weeks and I'm eager to sumbit this.

Rowdy is shrieking/whining for his supper so I better go.  Dogs do not like to wait for their supper!  Tschus!

Good news?

Career stress is upon us.  It's hard to move up in this career field when there aren't job openings in the area.  To move or not to move? I like KC a lot!  However I'm not sure I can physically handle the stress here anymore.

I've put out some lines and had a couple bites.  So it may be in our future to move out of state.  I'm pretty nervous about this but I can't get a head of myself.  It's quite possible I won't get anything.

This is tough because I can't blog in detail without risking my current situation but I do feel the need to just vent.  So I guess I have to write this slightly cryptic, crappy blog post to hit somewhere in the middle.

Ah hell, we'll see what goes down in the next couple of weeks.  I'll try not to be such the control freak/worry wort that I am!

Oy vey, long time, no post!

I have meant to blog, I really have.  I think I've been overwhelmed and lazy.  I also have hesitated in posting because I am aware an old internet stalker-type is back on my track.  I didn't want to post because I'm sure he's reading my stuff again (why, I don't know) but fuck it.  I can't stop being me just because of someone else's actions.

Since my last post I've kep myself busy with various stitching projects.  I've had to order some supplies to finish framing but otherwise they are done:





I started another photograph-to-embroider piece and am busy with that.  I'm hoping to get it done before Breast Cancer Awareness Month starts up in October.  I've also got to clean up another pattern for a stitching swap I'm participating in.  I'm hoping it will turn out well!!  If anyone wants, I can start posting patterns.

The hell that is Cymbalta is almost over.  I haven't had any in a couple of weeks and the only thing I notice now is that I'm a bit down in the dumps.  I think it was boosting serotonin as a means of blocking pain.  I don't want to go on more drugs to get my natural serotonin to start producing itself again.  So I'm not sure what I should do about it right now.  For anyone reading this, just know there is hope to get off this shit, or anything else you are taking and want to be off of.  So the fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis are still a big part of my life.  I'm trying to figure out how to be active and get exercise without exacerbating the illnesses.  And the endometriosis still sucks.  Some days of the month I can hardly walk because it hurts so much.  I got more pain medication today and it was hard to sit in an office full of little babies and pregnant women.  It seems so easy for people to get knocked up.  I wonder why I can't?  The doctor ordered a lab test so they are going to see what a bunch of hormone levels are up to right now.  I'm curious.

Also since my last post, Ron and I attended a home buyer's workshop.   They are a non-profit group and claim they can help anyone get into a home.  We are a tough case!  Both of us carry student loan debt and credit card debt.  My health crap eats away at a lot of our funds.  Not to mention a recent $1000 car repair bill.  We just can't seem to get ahead!  But we aren't giving up and we have our first meeting next week with this group.  I found their presentation to be very interesting and it fired up the activist in me.  Damn the big lending companies!  Check out www.naca.com for more information.  They have locations all over the country.  If you go through their program, the big banks fulfill a federal law that says they need to loan so much a year to programs like this and you get a locked in low interest rate, no closing costs and no downpayment.  Not bad eh?  The catch is you have to go through a strict budget through their program to prove you can make your mortgage payments.

We've got lots going on this month which is good.  Good to be busy I guess.  We are going to help out an historic cemetery later in the month.  They need people to help weed and maintain headstones.  I'm also going to talk to someone about helping with their history book project.  And we have free tickets to the Twins/Royals game that night, which I'm really looking forward to.  I got to tour the Kaufman stadium but didn't stay for a game.  We did see a minor league game not long ago, the T-Bones vs Joliet.  Again, free tickets!  I'm afraid that's all anyone can afford these days.  If it isn't free, we try not to do it anymore.

Here are some photos from the last few weeks.  Hopefully I can keep more on top of the blog from now on.