My recent CAT

My CAT scan that is. I had one this morning as a follow up to the bump they saw on my liver this past winter. I really don't have any horror stories to report. My tech was really nice and spoke French so I got to practice . He also didn't have to stab me several times for my IV like last time. I'm still irritated about that even though it was months ago because I've got excellent veins. But this time it didn't hurt and I didn't start crying in self pity.

Ok I did a little but only for 5 seconds because I had to pay attention to the little cartoon guy on the machine telling me when to breathe and when to hold my breathe. It was cute.

Of course I did NOT enjoy the 'drink' prep they gave me. Again it was disgusting but I only gagged once. I guess I was not as shocked by the nasty flavor and consistency as last time. My stomach's been angry all day though.

And yes, I did experience the peeing-in-your-pants sensation and freaked out a little but not as bad as before. I didn't yell or anything, I just had to keep telling myself to be still and to stop worrying because I did not pee in my pants. Yep.

Bra Shopping

I've been a little sad since yesterday. I had to hug BFF and her daughter goodbye. We promised not to cry but I can never keep that promise. I purposely didn't go with them to the airport for that very reason. We've known each other since we were 8 so we are pretty close. I'll try to visit them this Spring if all is well for me health-wise. I can't think of anything funny or amusing to add to this paragraph.


To cheer myself up, I went shopping today. Bra shopping. Are you thinking that's the wrong thing to shop for to cheer one's self up? You'd be thinking correctly then. I hate those places. Yeah, put up a bunch of photos of women I'll never look like and use mannequins with bodies no Earthling is born with. Did I buy anything? Of course. Why? Because I share a first name with some of their bras and I can never resist something that has my name on it. Not because of vanity, mind you. It is to make up for the fact that when I was growing up I could never find anything with my name on it. All my other little friends had personalized pencils, erasers, and stickers. Not me. Of course that was back when everyone was named Jennifer, Lisa, Heather, John-- you know, normal names. I always thought people were so damn smug about being able to buy stuff with their name on it. Now of course I can find my name on stuff. I found a key chain with my name on it at Sea World last week. I wonder if people will continue with the whole "unique names" trend. Will they start selling key chains that say Apple on them? I sort of hope they do just so I can stop being so damn smug myself over a 3 dollar key chain.

Since I originally was talking about bra shopping and then got off subject I need to return to the hell that is lingerie shopping. I read somewhere that women in France spend a big percentage of their incomes on lingerie. Can someone tell me what kind of drugs they are on so that I can ask my doctor for them? Why does Victoria's SecretHell use the pinkest light they can find to accentuate every bump and fold on a woman's body? What woman wants to look at herself under those lights? And what is up with the kiddieporn clothing they call their "Pink" line. If I wanted to look like a ten year old I could just shop in the kid's section at Target and save 75%. Am I the only one who hates the fluorescent pink and yellow polkadots and stripes? I guess I'm just old and don't get it anymore. Last time I was there, the woman "helping" me said all my bras I wanted to try on were wrong , then felt me up and told me I was a different size. She told me to give her the ones I was holding and pulled out a drawer and put it in my dressing room and told me to try those ones instead. I thought," Oh how nice, she gave me a bunch of stretched bras everyone else with bigger boobs have already left their amoebas on for me. And all the bras are black, a color I never wear, thank you lady. Employee of the year." When I opened the door to tell her I tried on and hated everything in the drawer, she was gone. With all my bras I had originally picked out also gone. I was assuming she was switching out the sizes for me so when she came back I asked her where they were. She said she put them away. Great. I told her I can't really judge what bra is for me or not because I don't like black bras since I wear white a lot, plus these ones in the drawer are all stretched out. She told me they use black because it's neutral. Ok last time I checked,nude or beige was neutral so I told her I had picked out nude and white bras because THOSE WERE THE COLORS I WAS INTERESTED IN BUYING not black. She just gave me a blank look. At that point I had already been there for 45 minutes(with poor husband patiently waiting) and was so irritated I just left. This time I ignored the stupid drawer sales technique and thankfully, because I swear my bras are ancient it's been that long, I found a couple I liked. The thing is, I left thinking, "I should have just bought a new damn lipstick to cheer myself up instead of looking at myself under those pink lights all afternoon." BTW, as I suspected, the stupid sizing thing they did was wrong. I am NOT a ( bra size omitted for privacy/embarrassment)! I am a ( bra size omitted for privacy/embarrassment)! Oh and the bras I bought were the ones I had picked out myself the first time before genius sales lady "helped" me last time.


Ok and before anyone starts to feel sorry and the need to defend genius sales lady please don't. I was nice to her. It's just that I've worked in retail sales before. I wasn't pushy, I didn't have a "technique" , I left people alone. I was very good at it and I made a lot of money. How? By not taking items out of a customer's hands that she's obviously interested in and offering putrid germful things in undesirable colors to try on instead.

I've seen the gates to hell

It is an Orlando theme park. I went to Sea World the other day with my best friend, her daughter and brother. We drove down to spend the day at the new Sea World water park called Aquatica. We were there a little later than planned because of a crisis involving Peanut, his mouth, and a dead mouse/rat/mole/thing in it--a story anyone who has a dog already has so I won't gross you guys out with the details. When we arrived, the water park was at full capacity so they weren't letting anyone else in. Our passes were all access so we walked around Sea World for a while. Ok, if you've ever been to Sea World with me, you would know, that confined animals make me cry. Confined animals trained to perform tricks for people and their screaming kids make me cry even more. The last time I was at Sea World was 5 years ago with same best friend and daughter. I had to push it down for her sake, after all she was only 4. Luckily for me no one was interested in seeing any shows this time. Not that the shows are bad, mind you. The night show with the fireworks was actually pretty cool. I remember they had it timed so that Shamu was jumping out of the water at precisely the same time a big firework was going off. But like I said, it's not my cup of tea.
We waited in line for about 45 minutes, short by theme park standards, to ride the Atlantis rollercoaster/water thing. Basically you go through some tunnels while Mermaid holograms turn from charming to Medusa-like ending with a steep plunge into water. Ok I'll admit, fun. And I'll admit that I was scared of it.

At about 2, the water park reopened so we hurried over to catch the shuttle bus. Ok I love water parks, I do. But can I just tell you guys about the feet smells? Yeah. And the food, good lord the food! And the 7 dollar bottled water? Oh and I forgot to tell you about the 10 year old we passed by cussing out his mother on our way to rent a locker. yeah

I'm scared to death of the dark. Ok. You guys know this, I'm not ashamed to admit it. So why did I wait 30 minutes in line to get on a slide that is pitch black all the way down? I swear it took everything I had inside not to have a full fledged panic attack. I got in, they said go, I went. I thought,"Omigawd,what-am-I-gonnado?!What-am-I-gonnado?! Ok breath, breathe, breathe. I'll be done in two seconds, Omigosh! Omigosh!" When I finally got out, I was so mad at myself for not figuring out that it would be dark in that BLACK CLOSED IN TUBE. I hate that slide and anyone who's not afraid of it.

I had so much fun but my ankles and feet have been sore ever since I got home. Lesson learned: it's probably a bad idea to wear wedge high heeled flip flops to a big theme park, no matter how cute they look--AND don't exfoliate your feet too much the night before lest you sloth off all the protective skin on your feet if you don't enjoy foot torture. And I've been having nightmares of being trapped in a dark watery tube that smells like feet.

Oh! And I also went here last week. Me and my BFF's yearly tradition. I brought a water proof cam with me but I've been too lazy to get them developed at Tar-jay. Soon guys.

Saw a Lady At the Beach

 

Maybe she was looking for shark teeth too.

Happy Birthday to ME!

 

I'm 32 today.

Check out my Wordle!

You have to click to enlarge because I don't know how to make it bigger.
I cut and pasted a bunch of sentences from my post about my trip to the beach. This wordle is so me.

Got this link over at The Eleventh with MaryMurtz!

Click here if you want to create one on your own.

Update*
Mary helped me with this--(thanks again)
So now no one has to click to enlarge....

yay! that's better

Man I just love nerdy stuff like this.

On grudges

I have a tendency to hold grudges for a long time. But only for certain people. Usually it's someone I know I'm never going to see ever again. This probably makes it easier for me to hold on to them. And 99% of my grudges are from when I was a little kid.

For example(s)

-When I was about 7 I accidentally knocked over a 3 or 4 year old girl. I was on a swing going very fast and she just ran in front of me before I could stop or slow down. Needless to say, I hit her pretty hard with my feet and she fell down crying. Of course I felt awful. Her mom yelled at me in Japanese. I don't speak Japanese so obviously I don't know what she yelled to me but I'm pretty sure it was in the ballpark area of," You stupid little girl, why did you kick my child!" She yelled at me so loud and angrily that I started crying. Looking back though, that woman should have been paying better attention to her child instead of blaming me, a 7 year old. They were walking right in front of me, they HAD to have seen me swinging since I was the only one on the damn swing. So yeah, I don't forgive that lady for yelling at me.

-I have a tablet that I used when I was in the first grade for spelling tests and grammar. My teacher, whose name I remember, Mrs. Nishii, marked one of my answers wrong that I know for sure is right. And it's not so much that she just made an innocent mistake, it's that she crossed out the entire answer with her red marker and did not give me a happy face stamp next to all the correct answers like she usually did and made me rewrite my sentence with the wrong answers circa Dan Quayle and the way he spelled "potatoe". So I'm still mad at you, Mrs. Nishii.

-Someone, and you know who you are, was "worried" about how bad my handwriting was. This same person, who I will not name, promised to give me 50dollars at the end of the 3rd grade school year if I kept a promise to hold my pencil differently. So long-story-short, basically I did change the way I held a pencil, now have even worse handwriting to this day, and I still never saw my 50 dollars. Yup, mad about that too.

-Oh yeah, same person who ripped me off on the 50 dollars, 3 years before had pretended to write me a check for a million dollars for my birthday when I was 5. I totally believed it for a few minutes only to be disappointed that, no, I was not actually a millionaire on my birthday. You'd think that would have taught me.

-And one more for the road. We had just moved from Hawaii to Florida into a new house and all of us were in new schools. It was understandably an adjustment for everyone. So my dad took the whole family to see a counselor. The counselor started with her speech about how all families have sore spots and we need to work together to communicate with love. I remember this very well. So she went around asking everyone what issue they would like to address and told us beforehand that we had to be respectful to whatever everyone's answer was. So when it came time for me, I said I was sick of being picked on all the time just because I was the youngest. She wanted me to be more specific and asked exactly how I was getting picked on, tell how it made me feel and explore what I , a effing 8 year old, could do to help my attitude about being the brunt of everyone's jokes. So I said I wanted everyone to stop laughing at my hair and calling me "afro-head," or"poodle girl," and that it hurt my feelings. Yes I was vain about my hair even then. I had just got a perm, a Christmas gift from my grandma and at times it was a little on the poofy side in the Florida humidity. So what happened after this came out of my mouth? After all the BS that woman fed us about respecting everyone's answers and communicating with love? LAUGHTER. The whole room, including, that bitch counselor. And she did not stick up for me nor remind everyone that I had stayed silent during everyone else's discussion. Utter laughter. OK I don't blame my family, that's why we were there. To learn. And she didn't do her job, she laughed at me with everyone else, thus encouraging the getting picked on and laughed at. Yeah, so she's forever in the I hate you club.



Want more? Oh I have more, I promise. But all this injustice has made me tired. Do you have any grudges? Tell me here, after all it is Tuesday.

Dead Jelly

What's wrong with this picture?

Well I'll tell you. Some idiot in charge of the golf course across the lake from my neighborhood decided to chop down a dead palmetto tree. Every time I walk by I curse him/her for doing this because this is where my osprey would perch every morning to survey her territory. Now I never see her anymore and have no idea where she hangs out so I feel like I've lost my little morning friend/protector.

This is the before picture.

I will not go on a rant but this is why I disapprove of golf courses. Some stupid person decided that a hollowed out palm is not aesthetic to the golfers and cut down my osprey's favorite dead tree. Bastards!

Because I have blogger's blo(g)ck

I stole this from Suebob


The ABCs of Me

Accent: Slightly Southern, but I can turn it off and on when need be.

Breakfast or no breakfast: Everyday. Cereal in the summer, hot oatmeal with a pinch of brown sugar in the winter.

Chore I don’t care for: Dishes, bathroom cleaning, cooking, ok all of it.

Dog or Cat: I have a dog but I like cats too.


Essential Electronics: Camera. I never leave home without one.

Favorite Cologne: Not sure. I like soapy or citrus scents.

Gold or Silver: Silver.

Handbag I carry most often: It's a white leather Micheal Kors brand-not that brand matters but I liked it.

Insomnia: All through high school. I'm still so traumatized by the fact that I had such bad insomnia back then that I'm very sensitive about how much sleep I get and being disturbed.

Job Title: Queen of the Universe--um hello, did you see my profile?

Kids: Not now. Maybe not ever. I change my mind every day.

Living Arrangements: A husband and a dog in a condo by the sea. Outnumbered by males in this house dammit.

Most Admirable Trait: I'm not sure. My loyalty.

Naughtiest Childhood Behavior: Sneaking out of the house at night to go to my BFF's house so we could jump on the trampoline. Oh we also used to steal her mom's car. We also got suspended from school for throwing Nerds(the candy) at boys on the bus. Pretty exciting stuff huh.


Overnight hospital stays: Story of my life lately.

Phobias: Please! I'm scared of everything. Ghosts including but not limited to evil spirits, clowns, serial killers, darkness, sharks, alligators, Psychoman.

Quote: "We cannot live without the Earth or apart from it, and something is shriveled in a man's heart when he turns away from it and concerns himself only with the affairs of men"
-Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, (Cross Creek)

Reason to smile: I smile all the time. No one can ever guess what you're thinking.


Siblings: 2 sisters, 1 brother. I'm the baby.

Time I wake up: Whenever Peanut wakes up, around 8 but I am NOT a morning person.

Unusual Talent or Skill: I'm freakishly strong for my size and I have a unusually good long term memory.

Vegetable I Refuse to Eat: Seaweed. It's gross.



Worst Habit: Procrastination.

X-rays: Soon.

Yummy Stuff: Home-made mac and cheese. Double stuff Oreos.

Zoo Animal I Like Most: Elephants. Snakes.

Feel free to steal this anyone.

My Sweetheart's Heart

No news is NOT good news but at least I have some news. After all the tests my husband has what appears to be a healthy heart. But while he was in the hospital a dangerously low resting heart rate was detected which may explain what happened. Hopefully a good cardiologist and who ever else we need to see can answer the hows, whys, and what do we need to dos. For the sake of Mr.Pea's privacy and my anxiety, I won't talk about it too much after today. Normalcy is what we both want so I have promised him and myself that I will keep my dark fears to a minimum and return to my sunny side up self.

(But can I just tell you guys, that I feel even more anxiety now that he's home than I did while he was in the hospital. I didn't think a higher level than what I was experiencing was even possible but apparently my anxiety knows no bounds when I'm worried about someone. I'm sure that it's a release of some kind because the whole time I was trying to stay calm and hold it all together which is what I tend to do during a crisis. Now that he's home, the rest of my repressed nerves picked up some hammers and started banging my system. I think I have a healthy attitude about it though, I'm sort of just letting it happen because I know it will abate after a little while. Exercise helps a lot and today we got in some good beach time. Luckily MrPea is on vacation this week so we'll spend some good time together. Ok I won't say anymore about it...)

I want to say thanks to everyone who left a kind word for me and private emails. You internets are so nice...I luveth ya'll...expect some more vis'tin from me soon.


Oh and on another upbeat note. Peanut(canine member of the "Sick" family) had his follow up appointment today and Doc says he gets a clean bill of health. Finally!