Spring

Monday was Charles' Birthday. On Sunday night, we celebrated with our life group at our house, which ended up being 12 adults, 1 child and a poodle. On Monday Charles had to work, but afterwards he wanted to go out for a sushi dinner. So, I decided to surprise him with a candle-lit sushi dinner at home. Of course he called in the afternoon and asked if I could just meet him at the restaurant, but I asked if he wouldn’t mind coming home to pick me up instead. So, there were candles on the porch and a low-table set with his favorite sushi and wine. It was fun to surprise him.






Our cherry tree is in blossom now, and will soon be gone- I think we may get about 3 weeks out of it each year. Last year I figured it would be in blossom for several months, and so I barely took any pictures and one day it rained, and the blossoms were all gone. So this year, I’ve been out there several times taking pictures, but there is already a coating of petals on the ground, and I know it won’t be much longer. I must be really excited about it because I had a dream last night that my Mom was coming for a visit and I was so excited that she would get to see the cherry tree in bloom. Today I cleaned off our table and chairs, and ate breakfast and lunch outside.

















Here is a picture of me with semi-curly hair. It didn’t curl as much as usual, but it’s all I’ve got.

I just booked my flight to Vegas next week. Sherry Duckett and I are going out for a photography conference. I’m very excited about the conference, but from what I’ve heard about Vegas I wish it was anywhere but there. Still, I feel like I’m going to some foreign country or something.

Days 2 and 3

Not much change from the medication...except that my heart pounds all of the time- going to bed, waking up in the morning. And I've been waking up much more alert than usual. Also...I have a strange craving for greens, especially lettuce.

Dawn on Steroids- Day 1 (read quickly, or not at all)

So I was talking to Donna Marie tonight, and telling her about all of the steroids I have to take to clear up this mess of mine. It’s the kind where you take 6 the first day, 5 the second, all the way down to one dose. She had to use these one time to clear up an allergic reaction in her nasal passages, and mentioned how they gave her a ton of energy, and that by the 4th day (when you only have 3 to take) she became aggressive to those around her. And I realized that I have been feeling odd today, and thought I would keep track of how I am reacting to my steroid treatments.

The main thing I have noticed today that has gotten progressively worse is that I am dizzy- at least in the sense that when I first look somewhere, my eyes take a moment to focus, but it’s not so much that they are slow, it’s that I want to look in more than one place at one time. And I’ve been pacing a lot- and with my foot hurting like this, pacing is not a good thing. Into the back room at work, can’t remember what I came there for, into the store, into the back, etc. Pacing in the kitchen while eating dinner, going to the sink to wash my hands, and instead, cleaning all of the dishes and putting them in the dishwasher, walking away and walking back to wash my hands.

I’m shaky. But that seems to happen with almost every medication I ever take. And I'm starving, but I'm almost always starving.

I have the urge to talk a lot, and quickly- which has been true since the other day after my steroid injection. Today, I was talking to a co-worker, and kept thinking I was done, and then thinking of another relevant point, and not really keeping my mouth shut about my opinions either- is this going to get worse? If you’ve made it this far I think you’re truly a friend and I will shut up for now because I can’t sit at the computer any longer. But I’ll let you know what I dream about tonight-
Like last night- we watched Memoirs of a Geisha, and all night I had an Asian woman narrating all of my dreams, and I think I gave birth once or twice, which has nothing to do with the movie, or reality because I’m not pregnant. But, I was reading Donna Marie’s blog about her birthing classes, and remembering the birth we watched in high school, and well, now I’ll stop, or try to stop.

Poison Ivy

I can’t say that I should be blamed for this…I have lived 27 years and never in all of my hiking or climbing or riding, ever, had any sort of reaction to poison ivy. For those of you who are close to me, you know that these past two weeks have been a struggle with an unknown physical reaction, with other reactions following.
I finally went to my medical doctor. (who is one of the fastest doctors I have ever met for diagnosing a problem, and for prescribing medication) I explained my situation: about two weeks ago, I noticed a dry, itchy patch on the top of one of my toes. I was going to the dermatologist anyway, so I asked her what it was and she said it was just eczema, and gave me topical cortisone to treat it. I faithfully applied the cortisone for about three days, even though the patch spread below my toes, and across three of them, and looked sort of like leprosy.
Then I realized that it looked much better before I had put on the cortisone and stopped applying the cortisone. I had to wait through a very painful weekend before I could get back to the dermatologist. They said I probably had an allergic reaction to the cortisone (duh) and when it split open, I got bacterial infection. So, they put me on 2 types of medicine to clear it up. Well, 3 days later, I had itchy red bumps all over my wrists and feet and decided I was allergic to the medication. The dermatologists told me to restart the meds individually as soon as the rash cleared up, which sounded pretty stupid to me. My eye also started looking quite red, and swollen and itchy. (I normally accompany my blogs with photographs, but I will spare you this time)
So my doctor looks at me, totally ignoring all of my self-diagnoses, and says, have you been outside much, like in the garden or woods? At first I said no, but then, I thought about it and said yes, as a matter of fact- twice weeding. Once before that small patch appeared on my one toe, and once the day before all the rashes appeared on my wrists (right below my weeding gloves) and all over my feet, which were in flip-flops. So, she sort of smiled and said you have poison ivy. When I told her it couldn’t be poison ivy, she said, well than its poison oak.
So I left the doctors with a sore arm (from a steroid shot) and a much lighter heart, which lightened even more when Charles said I wasn’t allowed to weed any more.
(And there was much rejoicing. Yeah!)

A Hairwhat?

Today I went to a prestigious salon in Buckhead and got a free hairwhat. My co-worker had recently gone and received a wonderful new do from this same salon, plus a few complimentary haircut coupons…so, at least it was free…

If you’re wondering what a hairwhat is, apparently you’ve never gotten one, and I'm happy for you.
I’ll be out of hiding in a month or two.

Okay, here is a picture of it blown straight. We will be taking some with it curly Friday night, so I'll post one after that. I've decided it's not a terrible haircut, and it may even be flattering to my face, it just wasn't what I was looking for. See, I asked the girl to do whatever she thought would look best for my face, so long as it wasn't too short, and wasn't a shag...she said, what's a shag...well, this is. I've never done anything like that before, and I probably won't again. It is fun though, especially curly.

Why Northerners shouldn't make Chili

I never had chili until I moved to Ohio for college. I always liked the way it smelled, but the actual bowl was never quite as promising. The other night we had chili at Mark and DMs, and it was pretty good, a litle hot, so I thought, I think I would like this more, if it wasn't quite so spicy...so tonight, I tried making my first ever pot of chili...and well, I've decided, after several mouthfuls of my own home-made chili, that I just don't like the stuff, and there's nothing more to it. Sandy and Charles ate it. Sandy said it was pretty good, seeing as how it was the first chili I had ever made. And Charles said that the kidney beans felt like little roaches when you bite into them. But...he did finish the whole bowl and made me save the left-overs. Hmm...men...sometimes I just don't get them.

Visitor

It’s official. Three members of our family have now made the long trek down from New Jersey to visit us. Charles’ brother Jon came down for a few days of his winter break. (Jon is a graphic arts teacher in NJ) We used the occasion to hit as many of our favorite restaurants as possible. We also took another trip to the Aquarium.






Here is a picture Jon took of one of the fish sizing up the other fish to see if he'd fit.






He also took this amazing picture of the sting rays.








And, sorry, DM, I love this octopus abstract that he also did.












My favorite creatures are still the beluga whales, and I spend a long time watching them swim circles in front of the window for our entertainment, or for their curiosity- it's hard to tell.




The last part of the open ocean section is a huge open wall two stories tall, and probably 60 feet wide. The hammerheads, whalesharks, sting rays, etc., all tour around the tank and take their turns putting themselves on display in front of the window.





















I also continued my study on people interacting with fish with this jelly in a cellphone portrait.