Project 365 (Day 51): The Never-Ending To-Do List

(Click for larger, more overwhelming view.)

Tags: Palm Desktop, to-do list, project365, photo blogging

Gallstones & Puppy Kissing Diseases

I thought maybe a health update was in order too.

My MRI came back all normal.  Well, except that I have gallstones.  Huh.  The GI guy said I need to have my gallbladder removed.  Gosh, I wish someone had told me that before. ;)  Anyway, no renegade gallstones; they’re all in my gallbladder, huddled together awaiting the big surgery day.

The surgery is now scheduled for March 23rd.  The surgeon had to be out of town on the 16th.  Oy.  But at least my mother is coming to visit and now at least I won’t be spending my birthday recovering from surgery
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Tags: gallbladder, gallstones, surgery, Pug, dog

Stress, Procrastination, Paralysis

I’ve been completely stressed out lately.  Stressed to the point of being overwhelmed.  Overwhelmed to the point of near-paralysis.

I spent a rather eye-opening hour with the shrink last night who pointed out how connected my home-related stress is to my work-related stress is and how it all is just merging with my Winter-related depression and weighing me down to the point where I’m allowing myself to live up or down to whatever expectations certain people have of me.

I don’t know if I can explain this.  It all seems so circular.

So, at work, my top thought is always that I’m going
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Tags: work, anxiety, job loss, depression, overwhelmed, stress, paralysis

Fortuitous Turn…Kind Of

Well, it turns out that postponing my surgery might have been an extremely fortuitous turn of events though I was bullied into it by my co-workers who wanted to make sure I did my share of the work while they went on vacation.  Heh.

I’ve been seeing a GI Specialist, you know, and he happened to notice that no one followed up on one particular piece of blood work after my visit to the ER in December when I had my Gallstone attack.  Something about some liver enzyme level or something being high.  Anyway, this could apparently be a sign that
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Tags: gallbladder, gallstone, MRI, surgery, wellness, health

The Choices I Make

I apologize for not at least popping on and saying that I survived the norovirus and that there was an epidemic at my workplace.  I have no idea who the carrier was but a bunch of us came down with it all on the same day, but that Thursday afternoon we were all quite ill.  There’ve been some trailing illnesses but it seems to have completed its course through this office now.

But that’s not what has kept me away.

Let me explain about the Daylight Savings Time “issue”.  Remember how panicked everyone was about Y2K?  No one knew what was going
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Tags: work, my life, project 365, choices, norovirus, stress

Norovirus Victim

Yup, that’s me.

I’d been feeling unwell since last Sunday, as you know, but Thursday, the diarrhea and vomiting hit me in the afternoon.  Well, my stomach started feeling really unwell in that way you know it’s going to be “upset” right before lunch.

Anyway, the low-grade fever, the stomach cramps, headaches, dizziness, nausea,  diarrhea, and vomiting that they’ve been reporting on the news — all true.  Two days of misery — true.  And if you think you get to sleep between “episodes”, you’re wrong.  You get to stare at the wall and the ceiling.  You try to avoid the quick moving
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Tags: Norovirus, wellness

Project 365 (Day 16): Breakfast of the Stressed

Normally I have granola in yogurt or peanut butter on whole grain toast for breakfast, but work is getting to me…

But by lunch I was back to my usual semi-healthy fair.

Tags: project365, photoaday, oneaday, breakfast, lunch, Oreos, Pepsi One, Starbucks, Moosewood, photo blogging

Discombobulated Thoughts — January 16, 2007

• Wow, halfway through January already?
• I’m feeling slightly better, just some residual pain in my back and right side but not feeling like I’m splitting in half anymore.
• Pugly is acting very odd lately. I’ve been having to carry him to the car every morning to go to doggy daycare and sometimes I have to catch him to put the leash on him to go outside. Then there’s the weird matter of him not wanting to jump down from the car when we get home. Very strange little dog.
• I’ve been watching HBO’s Rome and I just love love love
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  Tags: discombobulated, Seventh Generation, Joy, project365, knitting, gardening, wellness, the puppy, bottled water, Brita, HBO\\\\\\\'s Rome

  comments See also in My Life, Books, Music, Movies, & T.V., Wellness, Discombobulated, Acid Reflux/Gastro B.S., Knitting, Green Living, Gardening

Project 365 (Day 15): Convenience Food

I don’t feel well, but I was running low on a few staples like caffeine, bottled water, milk, breakfast, lunch, dinner…Because I wasn’t feeling well, of course, I headed right for the convenience foods. You can’t see that I have oranges and cut up fruit in there but I do. Honest. It’s just hidden behind the T.V. dinners.

Tags: project365, photoday, oneaday, groceries, sushi, comfort food, health food, photo blogging

Waiting While I’d Rather Be Doing Other Stuff

I put in a call to my GP this morning about the pain in my stomach, right side and back, as well as my migraine, bloatiness and lack of appetite.  I said straight out that I’m not going back to the E.R. (or E.D. — interesting that since that series started most actual E.R.’s now want to be called Emergency Departments) and I don’t want to pop oxycodone all the time — makes me too sleepy and discombobulated, and that’s saying something.

As it is all morning I’ve been trying to pry my eyes open.  I can’t decide if it’s not
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Tags: pain, migraine, gallbladder, gallstone, surgeon, GP, grocery store, project365, sleepy

I Hate When She’s Right

I’m annoyed at my mother.

Last night I was excitedly starting to tell her about this book I’m reading about gardening and what I was planning to do when Spring comes and she, being who she is, pooped on my party. She told me not to get too excited about it and not to go all out and invest too much in it and start too big. She told me I should start with a small garden and go from there because I didn’t want to overwhelm myself and take on more than I could physically handle.

*hrmph*

The sad part
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Tags: gardening, mother

The Migraine Continues

And I’ve got a continuing sharpish pain where my gall bladder is.  None of the usual meds seem to be doing anything to help the migraine.  I’m getting ready to go bury my head in a snowdrift, if I can find one big enough.

I haven’t had one this bad since I moved.

Tags: migraine, gall bladder

Just Shoot Me

O.K. So, I think I forgot to take my meds yesterday morning and I’m paying for it today. Otherwise, I’m just really sick today.

Pugly woke me up at 7am because he wanted to go out.  I got up, took him out to do his business, put some birdseed in the feeder, fed the animals, and went back to bed.  I woke up again at noon feeling much worse and with a migraine.  I’d been having weird dreams mixing HBO’s  Rome with HGtv’s whole line up of home improvement and house hunting shows.

I’ve been very ill since then.  I’ve been wishing
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Tags: migraine, wellness, health

Project 365 (Day 13): Snow-filled Leaf

Looks like a we might finally have got a sign that Winter might be coming to Maine…maybe…

Tags: project365, photoaday, oneaday, photo blogging, Winter, Maine, leaf, snow

One Scarf Finished

I finally finished that scarf I started knitting back in October. Yay!

Tags: knitting, scarf

Project 365 (Day 11): Happy Feet

Someone once commented that I dress like a “conservative Bostoner/New Yorker.” I’m not sure what that means since I’m from New Orleans. Normally I wear fall colors and a lot of brown and black mixed with a lot of orange and the occasional lime green.

But I have a secret, one that the accupuncturist and my physical therapist both pointed out this week — I almost always wear brightly colored socks!

Almost no one ever looks at your feet, so it’s my secret surprise, my happy feet, my wild, kinky, outgoing,
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Tags: project365, photoaday, oneaday, socks, clothing

MP3 Player Vs. CD Player: Which is Greener?

Did you know that having an MP3 player is a “Green” Lifestyle choice?

I was surprised to learn this. Apparently, according to It’s Easy Being Green, if you download music rather than buy CDs, you are already making a “greener” lifestyle choice…even if you are only doing it some of the time. It’s still better than the alternative.

CD-Roms and DVDs are made of polycarbonate plastic which is not biodegradable. Think about all of those CDs that came to your
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Tags: recycle, green living, CD-rom, DVD, biodegradable, landfill, crafts, iPod

The Story So Far…

Last night I told Pugly that we needed to be up extra early because I had an 8am PT appointment and yesterday morning he hadn’t been all that helpful about helping me get to my 8:30am acupuncture appointment on time.  He hadn’t seemed all that impressed last night but I thought that maybe something might change in the middle of the night.

The truth is that I don’t do 8am appointments very well.

So, I overslept.  I woke up at 6:30am, knowing full well that I needed to leave by 7:15am if I were going to get to the city in time. 
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Tags: life

Thursday Thirteen Vanity Plates I Took Pictures Of This Week (#20)

Today’s Thursday Thirteen is brought to you by the letters W, I, and G, and the numbers 5 and 23.

I found these all in less than seven days. I swear, New Englanders have the most Vanity Plates per square mile.

Thirteen Things about N. Mallory

1. This guy is just “CREWZN.”
   
2. I can only imagine this person is a self-styled “gangsta”. Though, in a Mazda? Probably not very credible.
   
3. This must be a mother.
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   Tags: vanity plates, photo blogging, thursday thirteen, meme, bloghopping, license plates, automobiles, cars, parking lot, parking garage, Maine, New England

   19 comments See also in My Life, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, Thursday Thirteen, Memes

Project 365 (Day 9): Security Violation

Where I work, if you don’t have a security badge, you can’t get back from the dimly lit hall where the bathrooms are to the office without wedging the door open with a trashcan. We’ve been told this is a serious security violation as that could lead to just anyone wandering in.

There used to be a “guest” badge for visitors of the building to borrow — you know, those folks who have meetings in the conference room, consultants, schmucks who’ve left their real security badges on their
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Tags: security, trashcan, pxn8, project365, photoaday, oneaday, photo blogging