Sprinkles: the cure for everything

I'm about to make you feel better about almost everything. (Yes, even the frigid weather).

It's safe to say I'm a couple days late with this one.

Ever since Friday, (five days ago) I've had the constant feeling of being carsick. Five. Days. No, I still don't know what causes the dizziness but five days straight every couple months of not being able to do anything but sit or lie still without feeling sick, is unacceptable. I considered drugging myself up with Dramamine, which would have been wonderful except for the fact that, you know, I work for a living and being awake is a necessity.

This morning I was dreading getting out of bed and going through it again but then, when I stood up out of bed...NOT DIZZY! It's like the clouds parted and I wanted to kiss everyone! And everything! PIPPI, GET OVER HERE!

Suddenly, after taking five days off from working out, due to the obvious, I currently want to RUN ALL THE MILES!

I'm officially giving credit to the last thing I ate last night for this miracle.

AKA - ending a bad day in the best way possible.

The sprinkles poured out too fast and I was about to complain that I got too many and then I realized...that's not even possible! 

Not only was it cold outside yesterday (there I go again)

...but my commute to work ended in this:

Stop signs. They aren't optional.

I probably haven't said this enough, but MAN do I love people. So, in trying to look for the humorous in crap situations, I found it kind of funny that, when I called the insurance company one of the questions they asked me was whether I was wearing my seatbelt. Now, I instinctively always put mine on, so when I told "insurance lady" that I was wearing mine I wasn't lying. My question is...who would say no to this? Not only would that be really stupid but it's actually against the law to drive without your seatbelt on in North Carolina. So, if someone actually admitted to not wearing one, would insurance not cover the accident?

That's your homework. Hope to it! I'll be over here...basking in the glow of being able to look from side-to-side without feeling the need to hurl. Wee!

"Does this mean longer walks again, Momma?"

Operation #RAGE

You know that stuff the dentist shoots into your gums before drilling into your teeth? This morning I had three shots of it put into the muscles of my lower back. Shockingly, it did nothing for the pain in my SPINE. Last week my chiropractor let me know that he was sending me to another doctor to prescribe inti-inflammatory drugs to try to help heal my back. I don't need freaking PAIN MANAGEMENT. But that's ok, because it didn't stop the pain anyway. Throwing money away? Not really my thing. So frustrating!

Pain management at its finest.

In good news...

Looks what's sitting in my dining room, waiting to be installed!

That, my friends, is 17 beautiful boxes of laminate (fake wood) flooring. My building manager finally approved for me to use funds from my stewardship account to replace the nasty carpet on my first floor. My friend and his dad are going to install it and I can't wait. (FYI: For the flooring, quarter rounds for around the walls, and the padding, the total was less than $600. Need a deal on just about anything? I will find it!)

 Case in point:

I smell a cheap lunch.

Now, where to find affordable rugs?

Don't spend too much, mom. I need more new toys!

Also, know what I found out today, by accident? Friday is a work holiday! I didn't even know! Best news I could have ever hoped for today. Four-day work week FTW!

Sleeping like a freefaller

So I learned something new last week. After another week of no progress in fixing my back, my doctor asked me what position I sleep in at night. I told him I sleep on my stomach. He asked me, shocked, "You don't sleep on your back?" Apparently sleeping on your stomach is to your back what killing defenseless puppies is to humanity. Didn't you know?? So, I was told to put a pillow under my abdomen before falling asleep. I tried it and, after about two hours of lying awake uncomfortable, I gave up on that genius plan.

Also, as with just about everything in life, did you know that your sleeping "style" says mysterious things about you?

Also, apparently, believing all this makes you misspell the word fetus.

This weekend I decided I was going to try watching a new series on Netflix. I'd been hearing good things about House of Cards, so I decided to give it a try. Spoiler Alert: the first episode begins with a dog getting hit by a car. He goes on to whine and cry in pain for at least a minute. It probably goes on longer than that, but sixty seconds was all I could take before hitting 'stop' and completely giving up on the entire series. Yep, that's all it takes.

Any dog-friendly series I should check out?

Also, this happened this weekend:

It got to the point where my hair was getting annoying and I'd just put it up all the time, so it was time (either that or Kara's black widow infestation stories put me over the edge). I got about six inches cut off. The lady who cut my hair was a little whackadoodle. Apparently she was a graphic designer for ten years and she hated it, so she spent the entire appointment trying to convince me to switch careers. Luckily I'm not that easily influenced.



I've been feeling left out with everyone running races recently. I'm ready to get back on the horse! Three more weeks to go until I can hopefully start running again. I guess I'm going to have to learn to sleep with a pillow under my abdomen. Or maybe someone can invent a way to just numb my lower back? Or maybe a donor disc between my L4 and L5 vertebrae? Is that even possible? I've already got a race in mind for next March, so hopefully things start looking up.

I see da future, Mom. It looks bright!

I'm crooked

Back pain update:
I have a bulging disc in my lower back. I could tell you which vertebrae it is between, but I'm not that invested in caring. I just want it to stop hurting. Apparently my hips are also out of alignment.

If I were a building...

I've been to the chiropractor five times in less than two weeks. I hope they're as sick of seeing me as I am of seeing them. This has, of course, put a damper on my workouts the last couple of weeks. I'm beginning to feel like a fat slug. This is no good for my mood. It's probably a good thing I live alone, although I think it's wearing off on Pippi.

Onto a completely different subject...

Lately I've been into painting my nails, but I always hesitate to buy new nail polishes because I never finish the entire bottle. NEVER. I feel like companies should sell all colors in half-sized bottles for half the price. I bet they'd sell a ton more of them than the regular-sized bottles, except maybe to nail salons. But let's be honest; ain't nobody got the money to go to the nail salon on a regular basis.

As you can see, I'm a fan of buying polishes on clearance.

Since the half-size bottle thing will probably never happen, I've been thinking about some type of nail polish exchange. I'm not exactly sure how it would work, but I really like the idea of trading nail polishes to refresh your selection from someone else's selection. Plus it would be free, aside from the shipping cost.

Would anyone else be interested in a nail polish exchange? Or is this actually just a really horrible idea?

Medicinal liquor

Dear world: I am in SO MUCH PAIN!   

I'm not sure how I did it, but yesterday I must have moved in just the right way to complete eff up my lower back. Someone asked me if I did it while working out or if I tried to pick up Pippi or maybe while cleaning? Nope. All those scenarios would make way too much sense. I've had issues with my lower back since college and I can't afford to go to a chiropractor so I've just lived with the pain, but holy CRAP! I really think there should be such a thing as "medicinal shots of hard liquor". It looks like a forced rest day. Argh!

Now, because I promised a few people I'd mention it, the real reason I went to New York last month was to visit...a boy <gasp!>. His name is Shane and he's pretty flippin awesome. I met him in August., so I've been hiding it from you for six whole months. Don't hold it against me, okay?

Also, the knitting projects continue. Yesterday I knit a hat!

It's too bad I'm not a hat person, so I'll never wear it. Looks like I'll just have to give it away. (Thanks, Abbi, for the pattern. Now I have confidence for knitting in the round.)

Fancy pants coffee.

I really want to knit a blanket, but I hate using knit blankets (they're too hole-y) so I'll be giving that away, too. My friends and family are about to get so lucky.

And, for your viewing pleasure, I found a new awesome website. Cute animals + bad language = hours of entertainment. Enjoy it. You're welcome.

Rawwwwwr.

On going insane

In my many years on this earth, I've tackled lots of types of workouts: running, swimming, yoga, kickboxing, workout DVDs, spinning...and now I'm venturing into the world of Insanity. I've only tackled two days so far, so I've got 58 more heart-pounding days to go.

At least my birthday lands in the "recovery week".

Don't let the "fit test" fool you. I was all "Oh, day 1 is just the fit test. I'm sure it won't be that hard." And then I learned a lesson that I will be cursing Shaun T. for for the next 58 days. Adding "power" to the beginning of a well-meaning exercise makes it 500 times more evil. Adding "suicide"? Well, you can imagine.

I've mentioned this before, but I really hate the "quick feet" exercise because, well, any part of me that can jiggle, does jiggle. And that just ain't fun. And now, I have new exercises to hate even more. The Heisman and 123-123.

Basically  jumping side-to-side doing this. Over and over.

Yesterday's workout was Plyometric Cardio Circuit, meaning I got to do these things over and over, each time faster than the time before (in theory). Truth be told, I only got through 20 minutes of the 40-minute workout because I'm now dealing with balance issues due to the junk in my head not going away. I haven't been able to hear out of my right ear since Sunday. Mucinex to the rescue!

I like to call this "doing it right."

By the way, it really bums me out that the Mucinex boxes don't feature the phlegm monster from the commercials.

But I digress.

I remember the first time after I did my favorite workout DVD, I struggled to walk up stairs for three days but then doing it a year later it now seems easy. With any luck, by day 60 these workouts will seem easy. Right, guys? Right?

Atrophy

Two weeks of not being able to work out and I'm GOING INSANE!

I've already signed up for a spin class this afternoon and I have grand plans of going for a run tomorrow since it's probably the last weekend of beautifully warm weather for a while. This is either a really great plan or a really super dumb plan. I'll let you know.

Shut up, Johnny.

Failing at life like a champ

Remember those two back-to-back races I signed up for for the second time this year (because I'm just so smart?)

Basically, they were the most gigantic wastes of my money ever. I haven't been sick in over two years, but this week and last my immune system decided to kick my ass. Last week, well, let me demonstrate with an annoyingly happy image.

And then this past Friday, the first day my stomach was back to normal, I started with a sore throat and by the time I left work, swallowing or talking felt like setting fire to my throat/neck/head and i had a fever of 100. At the late hour of 6:30, I took some magical medicine and went to bed for the night.

Magical oral anesthesia.

I spent the majority of my weekend doing more of that. Over and over. Sunday I went grocery shopping and then needed a nap. I don't feel any better today but I know if I go to the doctor they're just going to tell me it's a virus and to stop being a whiny little jerk. I should've saved the stuff I blew out of my nose this morning to bring to them. Doctors love that kind of thing, right?

My grand plan was to start Insanity this week, following my last two races, but now even that will be postponed until next week. It took all the energy I had this morning to take a shower. Epic life failing at its best. I had a coworker yesterday tell me to shoot saline up my nose ten times a day and I'll be better in three days. You know, or I could just drown myself. That would make everything better!

Random tidbits

It's been a while since I did a random things about me post, so I'm bringing it back. Mainly because there's not one awesome thing I can really focus on to create an entire post. Sad. But true.


I survive meetings by doodling pretty much the entire time.

Step aside, Picasso.

Today's meeting was basically a 1.5 hour bitch fest that I really had no involvement in. It was super fun, as you can imagine. Why would anyone want to work from home when you can have angry meeting fun??



I have melasma.

No, this isn't me. But she's got it too.

Kara eluded to this affliction in her post yesterday, but she was referring to it as it happens to women during pregnancy. I'm just so damn lucky that I got it from birth control, which I had to start taking for medical reasons. It wasn't enough that I had bad acne in highschool and now have scars from that, but I'm also inflicted with this lovely condition. Ain't nature grand? Sunscreen is my BFF. If I were to go without it, my face would look...well...dirty. I've had people tell me I should have taken my sunglasses off because I have raccoon eyes. Yeah, it's not a sunglasses tan, jerk.


Am I the only one who finds political signs really effing pointless?

Honey Badger would totally win.

I was never like, "ohhh! Ok, well since I've now seen 569 of YOUR choice of candidate's signs, I'm voting for him instead." Same goes for political bumper stickers on cars. I don't know about you, but I like to give people the least amount of ammunition to key my car as possible.


I have a neighbor who puts an Easy Walk harness on his dog wrong. As the owner and user of said harness, it looks completely ridiculous. I really want to tell him it's wrong, but we're now four months into my living here and I feel like telling him now would be a huge hit to his ego and/or result in the keying of my car.


Clearly I'm slightly paranoid at the possibility of someone keying my car.


Wounds fascinate me. I can't stand watching a needle or scalpel puncture skin, but the aftermath is so intriguing. I almost passed out at the thought of having two moles shaved off, but the resulting wounds were pretty cool.


THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!

Hope and homework

So you know those vegetables I cut up for the 4th of July celebration? Yeah, I forgot them at home. I currently have a fridge full of Ziploc bags with cut up vegetables in them and a container of veggie dip. Want some?

No, the Cool Whip isn't for the veggies.

I did spend the day with my friends and their 7-year-old nephew and this little lady.

Remember the days of bouncing around the living room naked with a fountain ponytail? I wanted to attempt it, but I don't think It'd be half this cute.


Last night Pippi and I started our obedience classes. It was nice to see she wasn't the only one with issues with manners. At introduction time, Instructor Ryan wanted to know what kinds of things each dog needed to work on and when I went down our list of issues, he kept saying "that's easy." Ryan gave me hope...and homework.

This is my new best friend.

How has Hartford training been going? Yeah, not well. I spent the fourth of July being dizzy and then yesterday started out dizzy and ended with a migraine. It's a good thing my training plan allows two rest days a week. I'm still feeling iffy today, but hopefully this evening when I head out for a run, my head will be back to normal. It's been a really long time since I've had a migraine and I was sort of hoping I "grew out" of them. Yeah, apparently that's not actually a thing. I had no Excedrin or caffeinated beverages in the house, so I ate some coffee ice cream instead. It ended up doing nothing for the migraine, but it sure was delicious.

If you're training for a race, I hope you've been having a better week than me. What's on tap for the weekend (besides a long run)?

Announcements of the Awesome variety

1
I've finally joined the ranks of the cell phone elite. Yesterday, on the day I could finally upgrade my slow, nothing special cell phone, I headed over to Verizon on my lunch break and BAM! iPhone 4S owner here. The phone lady (yes, that was her name) tried to give me an 8GB iPhone 4. I set her straight. And, because I don't understand the point of buying a white phone, and iPhones don't come in purple, I chose the black one.

I'm the bomb, yo.

My lock screen wallpaper is cooler than
yours!

2
Today is my "second opinion" ENT appointment. I'm hoping this doctor has a better diagnosis than, "Oh, you're dizzy? Here, use this nose spray...THAT WON'T HELP AT ALL!" Because, as you'll see from #3, I'm going to need to NOT be dizzy for the near future.
  
3
It looks like I'm going to need to get on with my plan to create something to hang my race medals. 

Not only am I registered for the Tar Heel 10-miler in April, but now I'm being coerced into also registering for another half marathon (RunRaleigh half), also in April, by Alyssa's friend Michael (who ran his first full marathon this past weekend in Myrtle Beach).

He's the tall one.

I've decided that I don't want to run any race alone, and Michael has promised me that if I sign up for the RunRaleigh half, he'll sign up for the Tar Heel 10-miler. (He knows his audience).

It would be awesome to go from zero medals to three
medals in less than four months.

So, I haven't made a final decision yet but as we all know, I'm a sucker for peer pressure. Plus, I'm prepared in the running fuel department.

Hopefully someday soon the thought of consuming these won't make me gag.

4
OH! And, remember those Legos I ordered? Well, after long last, I bring to you....dun dun duuuunnnn!...the reason for the Legos.

How frickin sweet is this?!

The only problem with this little piece of awesome is that, once there are Legos on it, it gets kind of sharp and as we all know, I don't need any help hurting myself on inanimate objects. It's also pretty thick. I decided last night to order a smooth case also, and because Amazon has its funny rules, it was cheaper for me to order three cases than it was for me to order one and pay the shipping.


If you have an iPhone, has it changed your life?

Should I go for the half marathon in April?

Don't lie, you wish you had a Hunger Games phone wallpaper.