stuff is cool

Wow, it’s been months. I haven’t had much to say, not that that stopped me before. Brief news:

- I have a new baby cousin, Calvin Merle Whitmore, son of my dad’s older brother Dan and second wife, Jean

- Calvin’s half-brother, my cousin Harry, was married two weeks ago. We all went up to Evanston. IL for the wedding.

- My collarbone and shoulder have been giving me a lot of trouble, and now my spine is starting to ache worse again.

- Therefore I will probably be changing treatments for the third (fourth?) time in a little over a year.

- My psoriasis has cleared up everywhere except my legs. I still wear jeans with everything, even sundresses.

- I am not working in any official capacity, though I am hoping to work at part-time Yankee Candle for a few months.

- Gigi got a haircut and looks like a widdle puppy.

- Bishy Bish Von Der Bish presented me with a beautiful blue hookah this week, and I cannot wait to fire it up, once he teaches me how.

- I still read all the time.

- Danny and I will be moving from our current apartment in the fall, most likely into another apartment, but closer to our families.

- In addition to not maintaining this blog, I haven’t been reading anyone else’s. I have no idea why. Plan to resume all blog-oriented activity.

- I can’t think of anything else right now. I am distracted by a show about the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

- Speaking of lost-ness, we’ll be watching the season finale of LOST a day late, tonight, with Matt and Shannon.

So, with the wedding behind us, life seems a little strange. Certainly not empty, but lacking that certain excitement. Then again, I do not miss the stress and pressure of planning a wedding, and I hope my family finds me more pleasant company than I have been.

Being married to Danny hasn’t really changed our relationship much, at least in the day-to-day. But we both find a certain giddiness in referring to each other as “husband” and “wife”, slipping it into interactions with strangers as often as we can: “My husband usually handles in Internet stuff in our house. . .” while on the phone with SBC during a DSL outage, etc. etc.

I try not to dwell on things I forgot to do at the wedding. I lament that we didn’t take more photographs posed by Rice-y things at Cohen House. I REALLY regret not getting a single picture with any of my aunts. I wish I had made a short speech thanking my family for all their love, help, and support. I wish I had spent more time with my friends. And so on. But it was an incredible party, and we all had the most fun we’d had in years.

These days, I am working on being a housewife. Many of you may not have heard that I decided not to return to my writing job full-time. After months of medical leave, I decided to stay on in a diminished capacity, working only part-time, and from home. This frees up time to continue to focus on my health, which is still troublesome. I am switching to a new infusion in March, and hopefully it will work just as well as Remicade, but will also help get rid of the psoriasis that came out all over my skin in January. Methotrexate and lots of makeup helped hide it at the wedding, but my legs and feet are particularly afflicted. Since I normally always wear jeans anyways, even in the summer, this isn’t a huge concern, though I have had to start wearing leggings if I want to wear a dress. Sometimes I even just wear jeans with a really casual dress. No biggie, and kinda cute. I can’t walk much or stand for very long, because not only is it hard on my joints, but the sores on my feet can’t take it.

On top of that I have been plagued by heartburn of all things for sveral weeks now. I have never experienced heartburn before! It is a strange feeling. I picked up some Prilosec at the store yesterday. so today is Day One! According to the commercials, I think I am supposed to be at a local carnival. In two weeks I expect to be watching a NASCAR race from the roof of an RV, or hang gliding. The directions don’t say, so I’ll just stick to my usual activities and hope the Prilosec works just as well.

Though my back is certainly MUCH better than it was those awful months between April and December, I still get worrisome pain in my hips and tail bone almost daily. I am going to see a Pain Management specialist in April, and hopefully she will have some answers that will reduce both my pain and my intake of hydrocodone. I was supposed to see her last week, but mistiming in the transfer of my records from the other doctors meant I had to reschedule, and the wait is unfortunately long.

In the meantime, I take it pretty easy. I still read voraciously. I still revel in my candle collection.

And thanks to my obsession with all things fragranced, I am going to start a new website with the help of my clever computer-savvy husband.

I am still working on it, trying to put enough content up for it to be a worthwhile read when launched.

It will be all about all kinds of fragrance, including perfume, room spray, candles, and laundry detergent. It will be reviews of products, hints about fighting tough odors, tricks to make your home smell just the way you want it to, and a general celebration of the wonderful aromas of life. Since the fragrance industry is so huge right now, I will never be without something to write about. From aromatherapy dish soaps to scented toiler paper dispensers, our culture is almost as obsessed with fragrance as I am. We already have the domain, and I am playing with the design. i am glad I stumbled onto an appropriate domain, because so many have been snatched up by people on the outside chance they can sell it to someone who wants it. The one I originally wanted was taken, and up for sale for $1500!

I am excited about this new project, which combines what I love and what I am good at. It is exactly the sort of project I need to find purpose in the everyday. It is far better and more satisfying than writing material for other people. I had grown more than restless with my work, and desperately needed to write for myself instead of others. I will still work on projects for others, of course, for a living. It is still a great way to learn new things and stay in touch with the world.

I hope to even do some freelance work on my own, for friends and acquaintances who need some copy, but don’t want to pay the high cost of hiring an agency.

With all that, it is a pretty full life. Add to that the mountain of wedding gifts to sort through, enjoy, and write thank-yous for, and our apartment is full as well.

Danny is so precious. Just this morning he had to dash back after leaving for work, because he had forgotten to put on his wedding ring. We both take ours off for washing and sometimes sleeping, because they are a bit loose for the time being, and hard to get used to. But they have a safe place of honor in the antique pewter ring holder I keep by my bed.

As I write this by joints are beginning to ache, so I may not make the errands I had planned. I also have to be careful not to type for too long, because of course it bothers my wrists.

But reading taxes none of my joints, and so I am turning to my books. Right now I am reading a book about the daily life in London in 1700. Turns out it is not much different than it was in 1660, as i read a similar book abut daily life in The Restoration. But I still love to study it.

Well, I hope that entry wasn’t too dull to read. Just wanted to let my far-flung friends know how things are going. Love to all, and please, please, come for a visit this Spring, any of you. We have so many fun hostess tools now, and I want to use them! I want to be MARY T!

In addition to the Purete Ideale Serum, another item I can’t put on Amazon is a room at Hotel Zaza on Feb 15. I’d really like an extra night at Hotel ZaZa on our wedding weekend. Friday night, the night before the wedding, the night of the rehearsal dinner. Wouldn’t Danny just have to clear out by 11 the next day, when the hairdresser comes? We could just have one small room Fri night and then move to the suite in the morning and that’s when Danny has to go away. I would like to start the day of our wedding together with Danny in quiet repose, and I think it would feel more exciting if we weren’t in our own apartment. And I know the “You can’t see the bride before the wedding!” rule, and that only applies once she’s in her gown.

I have expensive tastes, sometimes. Primarily I have a weakness for Chanel. I have bought tons of Chanel stuff through Ebay. I LOVE Chanel skincare products but Amazon doesn’t carry everything Chanel, so my Amazon Wish list is inaccurate. In fact, some of the Chanel things on my Amazon Wish List have now become “unavailable” through Amazon. Since I know my family reads my blog, I’d like them to know that I really, really want this:

It is the Chanel Purete Ideale Serum. Chanel does lots of anti-wrinkle stuff, but this is more suited for my skin, which is oily and blemish-prone. Of their Purete Ideale product line, I already have the toner (Oil Control Purifying Lotion) and the T-Mat Shine Control. I don’t really want anything else from the line. Just the serum. Thanks.

On another note, I have had a MISERABLE week of very all-consuming pain. Tonight I was stricken with an attack of back/chest/arm pain about an hour and a half ago but the meds finally kicked in just now. I have my first infusion of Remicade on Monday, and, according to the literature, I should feel relief in as little as two weeks. That will be the best Christmas present ever. Relief. Simple relief.

But the Chanel Purete Ideal Serum would be nice, too.

Let me set the scene for my life, every week day, from morning till night. Sometimes I never stray further from the bed than to go to somewhere just a few steps away: the den or the bathroom or the kitchen.

I am propped up in bed. Two candles are lit: vanilla and autumn leaves. the TV is sometimes on, sometimes off. Books are stacked by my bed, at least 10 or 12 of them. The bedspread is blue and white like Italian Blue china. I sip Crystal Light green tea. Gigi is under the bed. I type away at my laptop. I make phone call after phone call: to doctors, to work, to clients.

It all sounds relaxing, but all the candles and blue and white bedspreads in the world cannot hold back the stress when it boils over.

Work and wedding planning and health press on my fragile body from every angle. I don’t eat, and when I do, it’s not much, or it doesn’t stay down, because my stomach is tied in knots almost all the time. Danny frowns if h is here to witness it.

My hair is always in a ponytail, because it has become long and ragamuffin, but I am too afraid to go anywhere alone these days, even to get a haircut.

My veins are showing. I am starting to look like my bedspread.

I have had such a stressful day with my job coordinating the magazine we do for a client at work. Many tears on my part. I am not very professional and I take everything personally.

So my mind wanders when I am trying to calm down. The Bourne Identity is on in the background.

My mind wanders to Harry Potter. What Death Eater could Clive Owen play?

On another note, absinthe has returned to the United States. A trip back in time. www.drinklucid.com

I need to stay as lucid as possible. Best stay away from the Green Fairy.

I must venture out to go to my mom’s to pick up some thank you notes she ordered for me. In ten minutes I’ll leave, I tell myself. Ten more minutes of safety, and then I have to go out there. Alone.

Ten more minutes.

I stopped by Party City to check out their selection and casually asked to see their Marie Antoinette wigs. They’re sold out. So I guess I will be one among many Marie Antoinettes this weekend. Maybe the only one at Miche and Andrew’s, but, sadly, likely not the only one at the HMNS party. DAMMIT. I should have figured.

Danny and I were in Austin last night for his college friends Tom and Christina’s wedding reception (they were married on 9/1.) It was my first time meeting them, and they were a beautiful couple. I got teary-eyed more than once last night because their reception was so gorgeous and romantic. Danny turned to me in the dim light and said “I can’t wait.” Neither can I. We danced to both of “our” songs, though “At Last” is more our song than “The Way You Look Tonight”. Kinda like how grape and cherry are both my favorite, but grape is my most favorite favorite (special joke for my parents!)

Later that night, at around 3 am, the group of drunk college BITCHES in the room adjoining us started getting wayyy too loud, so I threw my quilt over my shoulders (like I’d go out in the hall in my little jammies) and knocked on their door and kindly asked that they keep it down because we were trying to sleep. I was bleary-eyed and sleepy, not the least bit rude.

Well, as soon as I got back into my room, I could hear them loudly making fun of me, insulting me, calling me names, even for some reason complaining about my “huge fucking quilt” (they had to berate me for my choice of blanket?) So I went back, this time knocking quite angrily and told them, more firmly, that I can hear everything they are saying and I can even hear them specifically insulting me, and if they don’t keep it down I am calling security. Well, the girl at the door was actually apologetic, but her friends were shouting from behind her.

So I swept my “huge fucking quilt” over my shoulder like a cape, stormed into my room, and immediately dialed the front desk. To my delight I heard security come to their door and inform them that if there was another complaint, he’d have to escort them out of the hotel. BOOYAH! They shut up after that. I wish they hadn’t so i could have gotten them kicked out. Ooooooooh they still make me mad. Bitches. Yeah, I have a huge fucking quilt. I bet you never had anyone love you enough to make you your own quilt, rude-ass bitches!

Well, I’ll try to start relating more anecdotes. I am taking a novel writing class and I am supposed to practice writing as much as I can, and even though the instructor was talking specifically about writing “morning pages” (aka crap you write before you are fully awake and will never show anyone) I am sure any type of writing is good practice. Or I am just decreeing that for my own self.

Anyways, my birthday, my mom’s birthday, my uncle’s birthday, and my future niece’s birthday all approach as October arrives. My wish list is goin’ on at Amazon, but there’s this magazine subscription I am interested in that I cannot put on my amazon wish list:

I’d like this History Magazine but it’s not available through Amazon and I wanted my family to know about it, you know, for my birthday or Christmas or whatever:

www.history-magazine.com

So if for some reason someone wanted to get me that they might want to inform Danny of their intentions so he can make sure I don’t get multiples You know, if anyone in my family was gonna get me anything. Friends, I do expect a night of good-natured drinking sometime after the 10th of October I think the weekend after is the 12 and 13th.

Ok, another post coming shortly.