No siento bien!

Man, this week...well, it sucked. I got a migraine on Monday night that lasted through this morning (it is now Friday) and I also have the flu. Not kewl! Not kewl! In fact, life seems oddly cruel right now. Excuse me whilst I lapse into a pity party for one:
Our office moving to another suite because we laid off 170 people and I am being placed into a cubicle that is about 1/4 of the size that I was in before. What the heck? No more windows so I can stare at the traffic on the freeway. No more seats for my staff to come into my office and vent about the customer they are having to manage. And, no place to put my personnel files. I am about as happy as dog with a flea on his butt. They are moving us to an area where they do not have enough supervisor cubes. My question is this: why not put me in an office then? There are plenty of those! UGH! Or put someone with more seniority in an office and put me in a supervisor cube. The politics of corporate America are just infuriating sometimes. Not to mention when my boss asked me if I was ok with my seating assignment and I said no, he walked away. Big WHATEVA! It's times like these when I would like to pull out my wand and give him a little Legilimency (for you non-Harry Potter fans this means magical skill of extracting feelings and memories from another person's mind) to see why he would ask me that question in the first place. It's much better than using the Darth Vader techniques for punishing admirals.

Ok, but I am more spiritually advanced than this petty squabbling that I am expressing...right? Well, not always. While I try to have a positive attitude and an Oprah "look for the meaning in all experiences" sometimes I have to pull out my kleenex (even when I do not have the flu) and just say WAAAAAAHHHHHH! I had a looooooong migraine this week with a sprinkle of the flu. I do not feel good.

p.s. speaking of Sprinkle...have you ever had a Sprinkles cupcake??? OH MY!!! It's good. best cupcake I have ever had! I highly recommend all of them.

WEGO Health Interview

Yup! I have been interviewed. Check it out:

http://community.wegohealth.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2028394%3ABlogPost%3A26447

Let me know what you think :)

Proud

I am not someone who believes one should not speak about politics and religion. If you don't talk about it with people who may disagree with you, then why talk about it? Why spend your time only speaking with people who have the same mindset as you? What if you are wrong on something? How will you advance? I don't ever propose that I am right on these topics, but I do propose this: as long as both of us walk away thinking about what the other person said, it was a successful conversation. And, if either of us walk away feeling like we lost then it seems to be one of us or both us needs to do some homework on our positions. Discussing uncomfortable topics with people who disagree with you helps both of you understand why you feel that way in the first place. If ya can't back it up, don't assert your opinion until you can.

Anywho, this blog is about the Democratic National Convention and not my battle with migraines (although sometimes watching politics play out can certainly give me a headache). Whether you like Obama or not, you have to assert that this man is a great speaker and he moves people. We are witnessing history here folks. In case you missed last week, allow me to fill you in....the speeches were moving, inspiring and phenomenal. I cried through all of them. I yelped "YES!" and "That is what I am talking about" and "Finally someone said it." I am not a Democrat and I am not a Republican but I am an American. Like most Americans I am not easily defined by a label. I am liberal on some issues and conservative on others.

When Obama took the stage on Thursday night and said "I accept the Democratic nomination" I cried. I just wept. I was sitting there and watching history. I was watching history with my partner and thinking: wow, we are watching this in our lifetime. His speech was powerful and hard hitting. He said was a lot of people have been waiting to hear for almost 8 years: we are not an America who leave their veterans homeless on the streets, children in poverty, and its citizens without sufficient health care.

Obama is not great because he is African American. He is not great because he is a fantastic orator. He is not great because of his civil record. He is great because of all of these experiences and his life experience in general You cannot isolate one thing about him and say well this is it. He is the real deal. He knows that he cannot do this alone and that it is time the citizens stepped up and took their country back.

Whoever you decide to vote for, is not what I am trying to persuade you from here. What I am trying to point out is that WE are witnessing history here for many reasons. Keep paying attention because this is exciting and it is not often that the news is actually exciting.

Absence makes the heart grow

Yikes! Sorry for the absence. I have been feeling rather unmotivated with very little to say. Know what I mean? Sometimes you just gotta give yourself some space to vedge and space out a little. But, I do thank you for the inquiries....gives me the warm and fuzzies!

I am happy to report that Indiana was migraine free. I was very careful to take a break from any activities and take my meds when any tension started in my head, neck or shoulders (naproxen and muscle relaxer at night). I had one mild headache, but one little bottled vanilla frapaccino took it away. It is really amazing how when you don't drink coffee everyday, it can help with your headaches! Amaz-ga-ning! I have taken my precautious medicating home with me and so far I am doing pretty good. I also took an additional 4 days off work when we got back so I could wind down. It was niiiiiicceee!

Indianapolis is much different than California....and in a good way. Downtown was beautiful. Lots of old building (old for the U.S.), brick houses, churches with copper steeples, water fountains downtown....it was very lovely. Some of the statues were not what I would call politically correct (one statue was of a guy in nifty booties who conquered the Indian's...code for kicked them off their land and then killed em!) which were somewhat disturbing at times. I was not sure why they were paying tribute to some of the people, but I don't pretend to know Indiana history. Anywho, there were lots of trees. I loved it! Tree lined highways reminded me of home in Northern California. The people were very friendly and Chris' family could not have been any more welcoming. I felt like part of the family right away! So, I would say the trip was a success and it was really wonderful to see Chris around his family. I was not convinced I could love his grandma anymore than I did before, but I stand corrected. The woman is all love and she lets you feel it with each embrace.

So, now I have been back to work for almost 2 weeks and the stress is the same as when I left for vacation. I am still looking for stress relievers. A friend of mine wants me to go on a Candida Diet because I am tired all of the time. I started looking into to it and it seems I need to get my adrenal glands checked out first. They say if you are really tired after working out (which I am...I never feel energized anymore), then you should get them checked out. So, I am currently procrastinating calling for an appointment.

I do hope everyone has been well....and free of pain!

Off to the Races!

I am off to Indiana, but not to see the races. We are headed off to spend some time with Chris' family. I am actually excited because I love his grandmother and she is one of the main reasons we are going.

So, wish me luck on remaining headache free!

p.s. still off caffeine and drinking this fabulous green and cranberry tea. It's from Trader Joes and it is fabulous!! I highly recommend it.

Caffeine breakup

Well, I did it. I quit caffeine. I promised myself I would do it with my next migraine since I would be doped up and thus unable to feel a coffee headache. I have been wanting to do this for a few reasons: 1) my neuro wanted me to; 2) I have been really tired lately and I hate relying on something to get me going and 3) I dislike being dependant on anything.

So, now I drink green tea and herbal tea. Yes, green tea has a little caffeine but not like my beloved java. And I do love coffee. I love the process of making it, the taste of it, the energy behind my eyes from it and I love the smell of it. But, it is for all these reasons why I must let it go. Lucky for me I found a new fruffy green tea that is so yummy I actually look forward to it. It gives me no jolt and no effects of coffee whatsoever, but it tastes good and basically I am drinking flavored water. This is a good thing because I need to drink more water.

I am basically no fun anymore and this is in part because of migraines. No alcohol. No caffeine. I can't stay out late. I have to get 7-8 hours of sleep. No fun. If I do not monitor these things, I am susceptible to a migraine. For example, I had a 17 hour day on Friday. I was up at 4:30am and did not get home until 9:30pm. I was exhausted by 2pm but I had to keep going because I had flown 2 hours for an all day meeting. The next day I had a headache and my neck was very sore. These are signs of a migraine to come. So, I veged all day and took my meds at night like a good patient. My boyfriend/partner thankfully had to work all day; otherwise he would have had to spend the day solo. I was no fun.

Coffee at least gave me the excuse of meeting up at a local coffee house. I was the one last thing I was holding on to as a means for socializing. Ok, so maybe I am being a tad dramatic here because mostly I drank coffee only in the morning and by myself anyways. But, I could have met up with people for coffee! Alas, coffee and I have broken up. We are friends but not nearly as close as we used to be.

Define Freedom after 11pm

I really do enjoy the neighborhood we live in. We have some quirky neighbors and for the most part I really do enjoy those quirks. Now, let me tell you something about the area I live in: it is next door to a very wealthy area where quite a few celebrities and the very rich call home. I say this because it's important to know there is a lot of money next door. Then there is the town I live in. There was quite literally a lawsuit to redefine the city line so that some people could raise their home value due to the next door zip code. The town I live in has lot of people who would be considered ...umm, how do I put this politely? White trash comes to mind. But, these are the people I like the most. They give the town a lot of personality and I think a lot of balance. They make to town seem not so beige and that being a friendly neighbor does not require strings. The other half of the town are people who want to live in the town next door but do not have enough money to afford that zip code, so they settle for this town. They only want to associate with people who they believe can further their social climb. These people have a chip on their shoulder because they want the trashy people to clean up their front yards and homes so they can improve their home value and their own sense of monetary value. In short, they have been trying to push these people out of the town so they can create a neo-rich town. During the real estate boom (which has since crashed) they were trying to purchase the trashy people's homes so they could drive them out. Their mentality was "if you can't beat em, buy em."

Every 4th of July this town sounds like it is under attack. The fireworks are insanely loud, but they all stop at about 10am.....at least the really loud ones do. It is predictable and while annoying it gives the town some more flavor. I do not look forward to this "holiday" celebration but I do tolerate it.

So, last night it started at about 5pm and kept going non-stop until 10pm as always. One of neighbors 4 doors (who wants to be rich but is not) down decided that because he was drunk the party should go on all night long (although he was playing Jethro Toll's Aqua Lung versus Lionel Ritchie). These neighbors have redone their house and have quite a tude about anyone who walks past their home. They have an average size home for the neighborhood, but remain less than friendly to most. They are the epitome of people who are trying to be what they are not: privileged and snotty. Everything was fine until he and his party-goers decided to light a box of firecrackers right in front of our house. That's right a box. It was 5 minutes of lights and loud in front of our bedroom window. I lost it...and I mean I LOST IT. It was 11pm and I had enough. So, I tromped outside to give them a piece of my mind. When they told me that they put it in front of our house versus their house because box was "too smokey" my potty mouth unleashed on them. You would have thought this mild mannered but passionate woman had turned completely psychotic....and I did. How rude? How completely inconsiderate? What kind of people are you? All of this but with f-bombs was rattling though my head. What was coming out of my mouth was more like: what kind of people are you? Do you know what f-ing time it is?

Their response was basically drunken blather. I opted not to get into it when they questioned my American patriotism (I'm Native American so best not to go there with me). My parting comment was this: one more firework and I am calling the police. Well, they let off more fireworks. So, I tromp back over there and ask them calmly and politely to stop. Again with more drunken blather. It didn't go well but I controlled by potty mouth.

Now in retrospect I should have called the police instead of just going back over there because in getting elevated I could have given myself a migraine. I should have believed that all of the loud favors they were providing the rest of the neighbors would be returned to them. I have to believe that karma will bite them in their big-pale-wanna-be-rich-but-not-treating-everyone-else-like-they-are-poor butts. I should have thought about this, but after hours of constant explosions who can think clearly? And in all honestly, how much freedom can you claim on the 4th of July after 11pm?