um, blogher pt 2?

guess who never finished her blogher breakdown? (hint: it's me!) too much stuff going on, but not really. things like joining the new rec center ($12.50/month for me & $25/month for s-time to get our butts in shape!), 2nd opinion appointment about my colitis (md told me today he wants more labs because i may have developed autoimmune hepatitis-sweet!) and using extraneous exclamation points! !!
anyway, back to blogher. what i can remember of it, that is. on saturday we hit up breakfast, went to suzanne's panel and i scouted the expo halls again while she did her booksigning. we ended up lunching with another panelist from suzanne's session, which was really an enjoyable lunch. that was when the cranky began because i was really getting sick of so much of everything (perhaps a premature bit of homesickness) & we ended up at dean & deluca so i could bring some chocolates home for s. the afternoon was a big blur and then we met all the cool kids for an indian dinner at vatan, which was amazingly delish. i'm sure i'll forget someone, but liz rizzo, zandria, sassy monkey & her fake husband, suebob, suzanne and a couple fun people i met for the first time were there. appetizer course had so many delightful treats and you could have second helpings of whatever you wanted, then they brought out the main course, which was the same way. a large round tray with like a classy, metal cafeteria tray with space for each item. it was at that point that i realized my gap jeans had decided to part ways with me. either that or the fat on my thighs had finally rubbed together so much that they were near to starting a fire because a small (read substantial) hole developed on my left inner thigh. now admittedly, i wear my long & leans 2-3 times a week, not all day, but quite a bit for the past 18 months since i bought them. and gap material quality has gone downhill in the past few years (much thinner fabric), so it could be a combination of a number of factors. by the time we had our subway adventure, the cheezburgher party, sparklecorn and the paperbag-hatted walk home to await my shuttle, the hole was at an embarrassing point. and lo, it only got bigger as i packed and stayed up with suzanne for my 3am shuttle pick-up.
but i was glad to get home, no matter how much fun i had and i absolutely can't wait until next year or whenever i get together with all the rest of you beautiful people.

blogher-licious: breakdown

here we go: on thursday, much too early, s & i left for the aeroporto and thanks to construction, i ended up getting to security at 6:20 for a flight that was set to leave at 6:45am. almost died and security took pity on me as the only person scurrying through (totally forgot to take out both my laptop & my baggy of liquids, der!)
thankfully, the rest of the trip was fine, besides picking up the supershuttle and listening to the couple next to me discuss how coney island and long island were both islands in nyc and they were pretty sure people didn't live there.
got to suzanne's, picked up my key, gave tycho bunnae a pet and walked to central park to get a metrocard. why i decided on a 7 day unlimited pass beats me.
suzanne met me to drop her stuff and we headed to the hilton, where i met the darling suebob and we headed out for dinner, while suzanne went to the ce dinner for blogher editors. as suebob and i looked for sustenance, s (so many esses in my life!) texted me that he was playing with puppies at the rescue and sent me a pic, to which he responded when asked whose it was: 'ours' i about flipped out. we have enough on our hands with grover as it as, much as i want another puppy.
paninis eaten and meeting up with a friend who moved to nyc a couple years ago outside the hilton, it was time to head to the people's party. in the huge ballroom, i instinctively headed towards suebob's tulle/tutu making table for a bit. making the circuit of the ballroom on the way back to the table, i ran into the famous jonna, who hugged me and asked what my plans were, party-wise & whatnot. sadly, that was all the jonniker-action i got, even though i kept seeing her throughout the weekend and i'm sure she thought i was stalking her because people i was with/around kept trying to catch up to her (ie suebob, sassymonkey).
come friday, suzanne & i went to breakfast and drove at least 3 separate sets of people away from our table during the opening welcome. then time for the expo halls, where we got loaded down with swag. dropping it off at suebob's room in the sheraton, we barged in on sb catching up on sleep and in her skivvies (ooh-lala!). lunch and the sex session with @avflox, who then roomed at suzanne's apartment with us after eating druze cuisine at gazala place. this was, of course, after the community keynote and voices of the year gala. we were all concerned about how the posts would translate into art. when suzanne finally saw her art, some of the comments seemed inappropriate as the posts and art seemed a bit disparate. (someone had posted "joyful" under the photo for her post about her grandfather and the holocaust) while there i saw suebob in a grouping with a cute redhead and stroller, wherein i was introduced to lawyerish. i felt like a bit of a douche because i'd read her blog from jonna's, but then when it was password protected & back to an open blog, i didn't start reading again. and hoo boy, what i've missed! she's adorable and oh-so amusing and her babeh is gorgeous.
so the 3 of us, suz, av & i, geeked out early on friday night & surfed the internet at the apartment the rest of the night.

more to come...

travel-ish

in two weeks i'll already be back from nyc and blogher. new york is a nearly unexplored city for me, so i'm hoping to pack in as much as possible. at the least i want to check out grand central terminal, for some more up-close research on my bip that i haven't worked on in over a year. especially now that my laptop is working again. my only real concern about the trip is getting from lga to manhattan and finding my way around the city the times i'm on my own. oh, and not having enough hours in the day
at the end of september, we're planning to get up to nodak to meet my adorable little niece. i might be comfortable holding her since she'll almost be 3 months old. if nothing else, s loves holding little babies (ones he can give back, not his own!) and i can spoil her rotten. we might even have enough for 2 free flights on delta. amazingly, minot now has more than one airline that flies in, which makes less of an iron grip on getting in and out. international airport, my left big toe! but i can't wait to meet baby sophia!

revelation

on sunday, we went out to dinnerr for mother's day with s' family. on the way there, i found out one of the major factors as to why s doesn't want to get married. not that i'm actually in all that much of a rush.
he comes from a big italian catholic family; there are 4 kids and his mom has 6 brothers and sisters. while we driving to the restaurant, he told me that he would not be the first child to get married from his family because that would require huge festivities. for years, i have been saying how i would like to elope and maybe have a good-sized reception shortly thereafter. i've got a pretty big family too, but my brother did the big fancy party, so that gets me out of it. besides, my parents always told me, even when i was fairly young, that they were going to get me a ladder for my wedding. nevermind the cliches about eloping have the bride climbing out the window and the fact that my room was in the basement when i lived at home.
at least now i know what some of qualms about getting married have very little to do with me. and his older brother is in a serious relationship and s said that he would love to have a big wedding, which perhaps means there's something for us in the near/not-so-distant future. that's good because neither of his sisters has ever been in a serious relationship, even the one who's 6 months older than i am. so there is hope for me after all!

weirdness

the past couple days, really only one or two, i've posted on my facebook status about being a little sore from working out. starting a regimen that includes squats and lunges, along with push-ups will do that to you when you've been sedentary & packed on 10lbs in the past couple months. (another reason i haven't posted much lately: too roly-poly to belly up to the computer)
yesterday in the middle of work, my phone buzzes on the desk with a text message. "you're going to make fat fucks like me look bad" from the ex-bf. i was confused, but figured it had to do with my fb status and went about my business until lunch. then i took a closer look. he'd actually sent a longer text before that that i hadn't noticed, rambling on about if my workout was a wii workout or a real one, what was i getting in shape for and why did i need to do that because i was "looking great" at the wedding where we last ran into each other in april. thought that was really odd & vaguely flirtacious, so i brushed it off with a reply about getting in fighting shape for vegas. immediate response: are you and the bf going down to vegas to elope?
yeesh! if we were, i wouldn't tell you. as my lunch was over i waited to respond again and just told him we're not eloping.

then he posts this on fb last night: Axxx Nxxx Its not funny at all how regret kicks you in the balls in a very non subtle way. FML.

which may be in regards to me if that doesn't make me vain. it's been more than 4 years! i know it took me a long time to get over him & now i realize i was an idiot, but he broke up with me! more than once! of course he's a moron because i'm an amazing woman, but move on with your life.

on another end of the spectrum, we're now contemplating a cruise for the fam for my parents' 35th anniversary next june. any recommendations on cruise lines to avoid or try? we're looking for something reasonable, the sis-in-law definitely wants beaches/sun and 5 days because 4 is too short. and she's the only one who's ever been on a cruise before, 3 times.

no, puppy! pt 1

grover has this habit of licking lotion and other such non-food items. perhaps he has pica?
so i've had these awesome simple flip-flops that have a little slot for chapstick that came with a burt's bees lifeguard/sunscreen type. since they're attached to the shoes, i didn't give them a second thought until i saw grover with this little red cap that he was chewing. then it hit me: he's got my chapstick lid (that happens to be full of melted chapstick). yeah, not for puppies.
and s has this habit of saying words & phrases that are not quite the right words. in this situation he said "grover has an unstable affliction" when he meant an insatiable addiction. but hey, after 3 years i know what he meant.

happy anniversary

so 3 years ago on august 4th was the night i met s. i had completely forgotten what day it was because august came upon us so fast. luckily it didn't pass me by because i'd put a reminder in my phone calendar & it notified me on my lunch break. when i got home, i told s. his response was that we should get something special for dinner. he said he'd pick it up when he made a best buy run. while he was gone, there was a knock on the door. i looked out the peep hole to see a pizza delivery guy. i opened the door & grover busted out straight onto the the pizza warmer box. i managed to wrangle him & tell the guy i hadn't ordered a pizza, then realized that maybe s did. okay, let me just get my wallet. nope, s had already paid for it when he stopped by mesa & ordered. we had some tasty chicken cordon bleu and southwest steak.
he then proceeded to give me a joke hickey on the front of my neck. s does this on occasion, not in the heat of the moment, but because he can & finds it funny. happy anniversary to me! hopefully this bruise will be gone by the time the wedding comes around next saturday.

blarg!

so this has apparently turned into a whiny, medical blog. if and when i deign to post. it really feels like there's not much going on, even though there occasionally is. work is sapping my energy, so that i barely feel like functioning or doing anything when i get home. i'm lucky if i get around to picking up my dirty laundry & putting it in the new hamper i bought last month to replace the one i'd had since i was 10.
last monday i went to the gi doctor for a 6 month check-up because his nurse had called to tell me it was time. when i got there both the doc & the nurse asked what i was being seen for/why i came into the clinic. uh, you tell me? i only set up the appointment because i was told it was time & i figured it'd be good to discuss the weird lab results from the rheumatologist.
okay, so i hopped up on the table, he taps my belly & listens with the stethoscope, tells me he thinks i should continue on the remicade infusions since it doesn't seem i've developed any antibodies to it.
wait! but i do have an allergic reaction, which is why dr. f at the cancer center only lets me infuse at 60 (mg/mL- i think that's the right measurement).
at that comment dr. t looks at me like that's the first time he's ever heard that. so apparently, dr. f doesn't dictate anything about my every 7 week visit or when i had an allergic reaction to the freakin' benadryl or breaking out in hives when they sped up the infusion on 4 separate occasions, which is why they no longer go above 60. not to mention the fact that i had told him myself when i was feeling so sick all of last september & they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. he just shrugged & said that there didn't seem to be any reason to stop the remicade.
then he told me the good news. oh happy day. because i've had colitis for 10 years (diagnosed in june of 1999), i'm due for a colonoscopy. after 10 years, people have an insanely higher risk of colon cancer (something like 50 or 60%, i'll have to look it up because i can't remember the exact number). i've had my share of flexible sigmoidoscopies over the years, i think 6, but never a full colonoscopy. and after having a sedated flex sig when i was in the hospital in september 2007, i am never going to get another unsedated one. they are extremely painful in comparison. not that they usually do unsedated colonoscopies. at least at mercy, unlike the gi clinic where i work, they only use half-lytely instead of the whole gallon bowel prep.
i scheduled it for september because there's so much going on in the next few months: at work, blogher, s moving, my brother's wedding, possibly getting a puppy in that timeframe (squeee!!) probably should just get it over & done with, but there's no real rush.
what a thing to look forward to in the very near future. lucky me!

guilty reality

last night we had to wait for the cops to arrive and tow the car that was parked on the street directly in front of s's driveway. (as you can see, the green car has its tires on both sides of the driveway. the idgit must've thought what a perfect spot on the street with plenty of room! still wish i could've seen their expression when they returned to find their car missing.)

as a result, we couldn't go get our fast food fish sammiches (friday/lent & all). after 2 hours, the parking cop finally showed; he was the only one on duty & had four more stops after ours. luckily the tow truck arrived soon after & s went to pick up our mesa pizza instead. eggplant (parm with mozz & red peppers) & half spinach feta tomato pizza.

at that point it was 8.30pm and s was due to head to role playing. we were still watching torchwood season 1 when he found out one of his friends was unexpectedly ill. we continued watching the last of season 1 & turned our sights to 'regular' tv. in the course of channel surfing, i landed on bravo & some bizarre show 'millionaire matchmaker'. now, reality tv is one of my least favourite things & s hates it even more. one of my few enjoyments in that genre is 'the amazing race' & s will concede that it isn't too terrible. oh, and most of the food network shows ('ace of cakes' & co.) aren't that bad.

anyway, this millionaire show is a total trainwreck. neither of us could turn away. i tried to, but s wouldn't let me. there's this tranny-looking yenta (she's stated she's a 3rd generation matchmaker) in la with scarily enhanced lips & quite the attitude. her other coworkers include a goth girl with purple bangs & the coo is a mohawked goth guy. the two clients on this episode were a creepy 38 year old millionaire self-styled playboy whose dream date would start with a massage at a spa & end with taking his girl to rodeo drive for some shopping (even though he stated he didn't like shopping, but knew women loved it-thanks generalization) & a shy 34 year old internet entrepreuner who was incredibly awkward with conversation. both guys were jewish, so they were looking for a nice jewish girl. unfortunately, most of the ladies who came in for interviews for a private party weren't jewish, which enraged patti, the matchmaker. eventually, the private party to introduce the girls to the millionaires went over fairly well with a nice mix of girls, shiksa or otherwise.

creepy dude & shy guy both picked the same (christian) girl as their first choice, but she picked the shy, super-cute one rather than than mr. comes-on-too-strong. it seemed he really couldn't get over the i'm paying for an outfit to get a chick into bed on the first date, overly sexual conversation & he did not take any of the (pushy, but true) advice of patti to tone it down. no wonder he said he hadn't been in a relationship in 6 or 7 years.

i cannot relay enough how we could not turn away, despite how terribly voyeuristic it felt. i'm afraid we may have to watch another episode.

monday fun day

this hasn't been the best week at work and i haven't even made it through wednesday yet! superbusy and we're a bit short staffed since my supervisor was in cali on monday & the other m had her peds rotation for nursing school from 7-3:30 yesterday, plus she's deathly ill with a cold.
the upside is that i have a new cell phone in the mail (lg env2!) and monday night after work, i called s to say hi and that i was gonna head home rather than see him. he said he'd call a little later because he was at his folks' place. over an hour had passed & i was about to take my laundry over to the washer, but grabbed my phone before i went out the door in case he called. as i walked to the other side of the building i saw my car sitting at the back of the parking lot with the lights on & s inside. shrugging, i took my laundry downstairs & tossed it in. then i walked back over to the car & stood by the driver's side until s rolled down the window.

me: "uh, hi."
s: "helllooo. whatcha doin'?"
me: "what am i doing? laundry. what are you doing?"
he was eating a frosty.
s: "i thought i'd surprise you. um, after i ate this."

silly boy, trying to keep ice cream from me. he came in for a bit & watched ncis while i stumbled around in the crawlspace trying to empty the last couple boxes. then he took me over to his house to spend the night. unfortunately, i decided to partake of a tiny glass of mountain dew after 9pm and with my body's caffeine sensitivity, i was up until 2am. and kept s up when he finally crawled into bed at 1am. i can't stop talking when that happens. he just finds me silly since he couldn't fall asleep either.
hope all are having a good week!

giggle for the weekend-unicorns for obama

my friend n pointed me to this site. i couldn't stop laughing. and, i want to buy at least half a dozen different buttons.

the doctor one. because who doesn't love doogie/nph?

i've always liked banjos.

breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

i'm a natural redhead.

today is talk like a pirate day. arrr!

be sure to go through all 5 pages. you may find the perfect button for you! then, join suzanne's new facebook group, plush animal companions for obama (paco).

wedding burn

no, nobody got left at the altar yesterday. the title is just in reference to the fact that the two redheaded bridesmaids got a bit pink after spending the day taking pictures (scheduled from 10.45am to 3.45pm! before the 4.30 ceremony! with hair appt at 8am!). actually it didn't look so bad & the tops of my shoulders had a somewhat pink-ish tinge and the freckles were a-poppin' out in full force, but then as the evening progressed, my twin started getting pinker & pinker and we realized that i had a distinct line if my strapless dress slipped down a bit in front or back.
eventually we were standing up at the altar (i was in the first couple to go down the aisle & the last one to leave, meaning i had to stand up there the longest, argh!) my knees shook a little, but i was so proud of mandy & tom. i hope i can find a love like that. i mean, i thought i had.
after the ceremony, the bride's brother & the best man kidnapped the wedding party & we made a dash into town to one of the local bars for a quick drink. the bartender, surprised by a wedding on a monday, benevolently gave us all shots (scooby snacks! plus jager bomb for tom) and beers. 9 shots & 8 beers for $22.
back at the reception dinner we had some good eats-roast beast, salad, chicken cordon bleu, roasted potatoes and green beans. then the dancing started. luckily by then i'd had enough to drink so i joined in with the rest of the bridal party for the chicken dance followed by the hokey pokey.
it started to get much too hot & feverish as the evening progressed. after pouring buckets of rain & having the news from the twin cities here to document the flooding from saturday/sunday, the weather was perfect for the wedding and it turned out beautifully. i'm so happy for mandy & tom and honoured that they included me in their special day.
i love you guys.

what goes around?

so i walked up to my apartment this morning (was at s' for the evening because after i finished writing & tried to go to sleep upstairs jerk started stomping around like crazy & i needed rest). as i headed to the door, a mustang convertible pulled into the lot. i'd seen it before & was pretty sure it was a friend of the neighbor. meh, whatever.
just seconds ago while i was sitting on the couch about to start revising, i hear this horrific crunching noise that sounds so familiar. i was in the living room when the girl neighbor's bf smashed into my car 3 years ago. i peer out the blinds & see the mustang sitting next to the concrete stoop opposite my door. apparently he'd cut it too close & smashed the passenger side front bumper right into it. and it's one of those low-riding cars too. over a year ago s & i had walked into the lot only to see another neighbor drive his station wagon right over top of the foot high step. the car nearly pulled a dukes of hazzard move riding on two tires. good times.
i have to admit that i had a little giggle at their expense & immediately called s, but i do feel bad about all the damage. to the stoop.

day's giggle

i stole this from green-eyed mama's site.

'Relationships are hard. It's like a full time job, and we should treat it like one. If your boyfriend or girlfriend wants to leave you, they should give you two weeks' notice. There should be severance pay, the day before they leave you, they should have to find you a temp.'
--Bob Ettinger

i solemnly agree. *snicker*

it's on!

oh, my guilty pleasure!
lucas, haley, nathan, peyton, brooke, mouth, skillz
how I love the hs (now post-college) drama that is one tree hill.

and it's so much better knowing i'm not alone. glad to have you on board, a.

two-fer: at work, at home

the bf dropped in at the end of the work day to say he'd give me a ride home. most of my coworkers had met him before, but after he left k turns to me and says, 'm-----!!! where'd you get such a good-looking fella? is he as nice as he looks?' i had to laugh at the way she said it & of course, it made s blush when i told him.

also, a couple weeks ago we had an amusing exchange.

me, entering s' apartment: *knock, knock* it's me!
s, from the other room: i know!
me: how'd you know?
s: sexy knock.