I am rebelling and want to wear my bikini under my clothes to work, I still want to be on vacation!
Slowly going through the mass of photos we took while on vacation. Reminising along the way as I look at each one of them. Ok, B & NJ, I will get the photos to you, but I am not sending the whole shebang, so it is taking a bit of time. K and I talk every day about what you are up to and we agree, every moment of the trip spent with the two of you was just so awesome-you're the greatest tour guides ever and we learned so much!
While taking photos we saw the coolest grasshopper. Yes, he really is as big as pictured here. They were everywhere and as we walked along, many jumped around us. While I understand they are a nuisance, they're still really colorful and it's not every day you get to see one this big.
Update on my hand and arm: diagnosis,
Carpal TunnelI already suspected I had carpal tunnel in my hand but never went to see a doctor to confirm it until now. He put me in a splint for 30 days at night time. While on vacation, I didn't have any pain but he said I still have inflamation around the nerves. Now that I am back to work, the pain has returned. Hopefully the splint will help; I started wearing it to work to see if I can speed my recovery along. The splint is a bit big (even though it is for a small hand like mine) and is rubbing the skin off one of my knuckles, so I am a bit challenged at the moment.
I just finished the bi-monthly newsletter (that I am editor of) and have a brochure to create by the 27th and I hope I can manage through it all. Think positive- I know I can!
I am off to bed for some rest to see if that will help too.
Feeling small as a bug today, wish I could fly away! I had my EMG tests today and let's just say, they were shocking! I took a couple of tylenol prior, hoping it would take the edge off. The pain from the needles wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, though the electrodes were the most painful/uncomfortable.
The doctor actually gives you a shock or jolt of electricity, then more and more until she/he gets the results they are looking for. Painful enough to get your attention. It made me jumpy, anticpating the next jolt which would leave you flinching from it. Most weren't bad until the doctor tested the area where I had the most pain. Then I really took notice.
The doctor was 30ish, and a pretty red head, German, with no bed side manner whatsoever, quite void of emotion. Completely analytical, focused and all business, yet she was wearing a long floral skirt and a blue jean jacket. What's that all about? Cold as a fish. :) She didn't smile however when I asked her a particular question about her profession for a milisecond I think I actually heard a smile in her voice rather than saw one on her face. I have to say she did a thorough job and my anticipation was worse than the procedures. NOTE TO SELF: never read about the procedure on the internet prior to the appointment.
She did give me a glowing report though and said I had no never damage- YAY! I will survive. Now on to the hand specialist for more tests.
This morning I go in for an EMG test. My understanding is that the test is unpleasant and painful-oh joy! I feel like a human guinea pig, not enjoying the thought of being stuck with several needles intramuscularly (electrodes) and then the electrical activity is picked up by the electrodes and monitored to see if there isn any nerve damage. Geez Louise! I KNOW.
The knowledge that in 20 minutes to an hour I will be out of there and back to work motivates me. Then once the test results are in, I will be sent to a hand specialist. I just want to get on with working again without pain.
I am off to take some Tylenol...I was hoping to take something much stronger...he he, but tis not the case.
Have a great Wednesday and say a prayer for me will you?
Author: Clark Taylor
Illustrator: Jan Thompson Dicks
Published: 1992 Chronicle Books (on JOMB)
ISBN: 0811801233 Chapters.ca Amazon.com
Dark and disturbing yet surprisingly digestible, this thought-provoking twist on the classic rhyme is an arresting introduction to drug-induced despair — and a call to choose to act to end it.
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The House That Crack Built
Apparently, April is the month of awareness. It is Poetry, Autism and Alcohol Awareness Month. Today, with the help of Dennis C. Daley and G. Alan Marlatt, we will provide some resources for those suffering from alcohol abuse.
Daley and Marlatt co-authored both a therapist guide and a patient workbook in the Treatments That Work series titled, Overcoming Your Alcohol or Drug Problem: Effective Recovery Strategies. Their books provide practical information and skills to help change destructive behaviors. Below are some ideas from the workbook which help patients get the most out of treatment.
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Hem. (Clears throat self consciously). Feeling a bit silly for letting off like that - being a secretive Cancerian I like to be in tight control of things...memo to self, don't blog when having a hissy fit. Thank you so much - everyone - who took the time to post supportive comments and e-mail me privately - you have no idea how much it helped - I spend so much time on my own that it's easy to forget just how many people are out there. Prima donna moment over; we soldier on. I decided to put into action a couple of things I've been avoiding. The first being to invest in a new computer and go broadband. I hope to be speeded up next week and will be adding a studio web cam to this blog. Which brings me on to the next thing - moving rooms. I've been putting it off for months now, but recently I almost wrecked a job because I had barely enough room to paint. So we decided to Do Something. Because as it is now...
I can barely squeeze myself past all my resources....
...to jam myself into the few inches of space...
...and sit for long hours creating...
...with half my materials buried in boxes.
If it was just my little part time hobby I'd put up with it, and thank my lucky stars I had any space at all. But I do earn a modest income from it, and now I'm expanding into type and print, there is no way on this good Earth that I can work in there. So we are having a major upheaval and I will be in here instead...
(and from where I usually blog)
My big painting table will go in front of the window where I will get lots of lovely light, instead of the shadowy, sideways dinge I'm working in now. Most of my waking moments recently have been dedicated to working out how it's all going to be rearranged. To this end I've been scabbing lifts off my friends, trawling house clearance shops and have found a few sticks of cheap second hand furniture which are now clogging up the downstairs room. (Yes, we only have one). I am going, literally up the wall - because that is where the spare space is. Most of my books are piled everywhere, as tall shelves are so expensive. But I should be getting a six foot square bookcase soon, donated by a friend and languishing at present in bits, in an old barn. In the meantime we are going to have great fun manoeuvring everything around in a small awkward upper space. But when it's ready I can move my little 'type room' from the coffee table downstairs and get started.
Next stop world - domination!
As you know by now, I'm a huge fan of the Scottish actor, David Tennant, who currently inhabits the role of The Doctor in BBC's "Doctor Who". I have been doing my best to keep up with his film and TV output, and last Sunday night the BBC aired a 90 minute, one-off drama called Recovery from the pen of Tony Marchant. This was not an easy drama to watch. Alan (Tennant) and Tricia Hamilton (Sarah Parrish) are very happy. He's the head of a building firm and at the top of his game. She's a part-time beautician and mother to their two sons, teenager Dean and younger son, Joel. However, one night their perfect, if unremarkable, life is torn apart when a last-minute decision to pop out for a quick drink with a colleague sees Alan step out in front of a passing truck. The resulting accident leaves him in a deep coma but with remarkably few physical injuries. Tricia is desperately worried about him and absolutely delighted when he comes round, only to discover that the man she loved has disappeared. His behaviour has changed, he's lost all of his inhibitions, and he's veering between angry and frustrated at the one extreme, and vulnerable and child-like at the other. Simple tasks like taking a shower, getting dressed and making toast are beyond him initially. He can't go back to the job he loves. Alan's behaviour puts an intolerable strain on his relationship with Tricia and she is desperate to find the soulmate and husband whom she loves - but fears she may have lost him forever.
Sons Joel and Dean are alternately frightened and charmed by their father - one minute he's throwing games around when Joel tells Alan it's his turn to make a move, and the next he's playing hide and seek, crawling through the grass with Joel. Dean, meanwhile, is in the process of taking his A-levels (pre-University exams) and veering between utter embarrassment at his father's lack of inhibition, and angry that his mother is prepared to abandon his father.
This was an amazing drama. Very moving, sometimes gut-wrenchingly sad, and sometimes laugh out loud funny. David Tennant's performance confirmed him to me as an utterly awesome actor who instinctively knows how to play any given role, without ever going over the top. If you get the chance to see it, do so.
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The pictures are gorgeous, and now I want to be on the beach too!!! I live in FL and rarely have time to go to the beach. (Yes, I know, slap me with a 2x4)
Maria