Friday, December 31, 2004
Last New Years Eve was great.. and the days that followed it were some of the first days I felt myself falling in love with Rick. Such a magical time... where time just falls away, ya know?
In general I'm not one to get all excited for these national/global type holidays (july 4, halloween, etc) but, here it is the last day of the *best* year I've *ever* had, and I'm a little sad.
So I suppose it's a better time than any to get this out (now that it's been about a month...) I've been a bit of a chicken spilling it, but quite a few of you are putting the clues together on your own. So here it goes:
Rick and I have split up.
dundudundun! There I spilled it! Now, for the inevitable FAQ (answers to the most common responses):
"Awww, I'm sorry... Are you OK?"
Yes, I'm fine. Thank you. It is, of course, very sad... for both of us. We had an *incredible* year together... One that I will never forget! But, without going into many details, let's just say there were a few things we knew all along that might be a problem for the two of us to be long term. Granted, the reality and magnitude of our relationship was quite a (delightful) surprise, so it really didn't even come to the forefront until about 6 months ago when I realized I wanted to start asking those long term questions, but since then we(I) have been trying to see if it's something we could work out, but in the end we just couldn't.
It sucks... relationships ending always sucks. But I swear one of the hardest things for me is telling other people. If any of you have ever had a break up with someone you love, then you know what I'm talking about. Thing is, whenever telling someone the news, you often have to deal with the myriad of
their emotional fears and concerns. And honestly, that get's exhausting and frustrating. There's no way I can sum up everything to have it make sense for each & every one of you... it just didn't work out.
I think I'm extra sensitive to this because I am someone who will work on a relationship and make things work to a fault. I take it very seriously and I *want* a wonderful relationship in my life, so saying goodbye to something this incredible wasn't something I took lightly. Believe you me, if I could have just blindly enjoyed more time with him without thinking about the future then I would! My heart just wouldn't allow it. Darn heart! :p
The best response I've received so far was from my darling friend
Karrie, who lives in NYC. She came right out & said,
"
You know, this is going to sound harsh, but I'm not sorry to hear about your break up. I hate when people say they are sorry about a decision you made for yourself. You know what it best for you and I trust that this is not what was best for you right now. I think you're terribly brave for listening to yourself and allowing yourself to grow. So, I say congratulations and I'm here if you need me!"
AWESOME!! I love you, Karrie!!
So, bottom line is of course I'm sad... but it is what it is. Both Rick & I are not destitute or anything - we both are fully aware that we're in such kick ass parts of our lives, that the only way is up. We were really close for each other, and that's a great sign! We're still friends and you may even see us at shows together still... I can't just give up my best friend cold turkey! :)
"Do you want to talk about it?"
No, I don't want to talk about it. What do you think I've been doing for the last 6 months? I've thought, talked and cried enough thank you very much! :) Now I just want to hole up and not have to deal with people. Just for now. Don't worry - I'm sure I'll be back to myself and out on the town in no time.
So, tonite has a bit of mourning in it for me.. and that's OK. There's plenty of New Year's Eve's ahead - and no doubt many will be great.
::::
Here's a big smile and a *cheers* to all of you! To a New Year FULL of pleasant surprises! Life sure knows how to dish em, and my arms are open wide! :)
Oh - p.s. The coolest thing is: It's 2005!! (5 is my favorite number :p)
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!! xoxoxoxo
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Wanna hear something funny? Lastnight my computer crashed... and after I restarted and opened up iTunes again it was doing this whole weird resorting thing. And so I was like "wha?" and impatient me cancelled whatever (at the time insignificant and unnecessary task that was prolonging me to getting to PLAYING some tunes) task iTunes was trying to perform. And wouldn't ya know it after finally opening it back up again... ALL my playlists were GONE.
hahahhahahhahahhaaahahahahhaaaaaa!!!!
Alright, so no biggie. But actually something cool, is in the meantime, my friend Mike (
designer and operator of
SketchyPadSF) emailed me to give me some tips of his own. And it came just in time!
So, ladies & gentleman - here we have Round 2 of "If you're music library is bigger than your iPod"!! (crowd goes wild)
Mike's method, and I'm sure many others and now MINE for the time being - is to simply use the "only update checked songs" method. aaaahHA!
At first I didn't see why this would be the way to go, but it is pretty cool to see what music is/isn't on your playlist just by seeing the check next to it. However, I did decide to take it a step further and make some other playlists that utilize scanning for what's checked & what's not checked & the newest of each, etc. Cuz I like that!
So here you go... this time, the "tip/tutorial" is in one page of screenshots & notes. Check it out:
If your music library is bigger than your iPod - (Round 2)
Very cool way to do it, actually. I like this way better than how I was doing it the first time! woohoo!
Monday, December 27, 2004
| So - deal is I have more music on my hard drive than can fit on my 40GB iPod. So, I had to figure out how to put just what I wanted on there. At first I thought it was simple and I could just take the artists I don't want on there, out of the folder I have set up as my iTunes folder.. but it doesn't work like that. So, after searching a bit and asking my friend Tack's advice on help - he found this note about it on Apple's site. But I couldn't get it to bring up that message for me, it only kept telling me it would fit as much as possible on there as it could, but I wanted more control than that - so I created my own little system and that's what I've posted here.
The goal being to control what's on my iPod & still see what's *not* on there at all times, so maybe it'll help some of you who are looking to do the same thing. |
| |
 |
| | (you may want to skip down & read #5 first - or just note that my iPod is named "iRock" and the playlist #5 denotes is where I've put all the music I want on my iPod)
|
 | Newest Music
I don't know about you, but I have quite a bit of music on my hard drive. So sometimes when I buy a new CD off iTunes or rip a CD onto it, it can get lost amongst the many gigs. So this smart playlist is set to grab anything added after a certain date (that I change often). Usually it's set to show the last couple weeks. |
| | |
 | Newest Music (on iRock)
My iPod is the "iRock". So what this smart playlist does is it says: Look only in the playlist "*** My iRock***" and show me the music added after a certain date. view screenshot |
| | |
 | NOT on iRock
This smart playlist shows me everything except for what's on "*** My iRock***" view screenshot |
| | |
 | Unknown Artist
Smart playlist set to show what tracks have the artist & album name blank. I don't do near good enough job weeding out all the crap I have in my collection (aka tracks that don't have the proper info entered in), as I have about 350 songs of this nature in there now. Probably from compilations and downloaded tracks over the years. There's also a Doug's Applescript for this somewhere. |
| | |
 | *** My iRock***
Create a Playlist for all the music you would like to have on your iPod. (FYI mine has the ***'s so that it stays at the very top) I found the best thing to do was to view your library & select several artists at a time, which puts all their songs in the bottom frame where you can then go down & hit Select All & drag them to your playlist. See this example for more detail of what I mean here. |
The very last crucial step is to set your iPod update settings to update only the 2 playlists. Like this: view screenshot
Hopefully this helps someone else out there... it works for me! :) Comments/Feedback welcome. |
UPDATE: For those of you uber intrigued... you may want to read the next post (12/29/04) for a different way to do this. "Round 2" :p
I just uploaded a ton of photos from the last month of happenings:
Now let's see if I can get around to optimizing and posting some of these videos...
And so very happy to be! (and so is my kazoobie!!
purrrr)
I officially dislike cruises and vow to never go on one again. I don't recommend them, unless; 1. You have a crew of friends that you *know* you can have a great time with, no matter what 2. You don't care that all there is to do is go see some 2nd rate entertainment, play (expensive) bingo, EAT, or compete for a plastic trophy for being the best at limbo out on the lido deck. and/or 3. You have lots of kids and you just don't want to have to *think* and therefore you pile all of em on a boat and do the family thing for a couple days.
So besides the fact that I wasn't with any party peeps, nor do I have kids... here's a few other reasons cruises are not for me:
I'm from a kick ass city where there's so many different INCREDIBLE restaurants, so for me, eating on one boat, in the same restaurants for a span of several days was a big huge SNORE. One of them was a nice sit down restaurant, with admittably amazing food for the most part, and the other an all you can eat buffet extravaganza. They were good and all, but really I'd much rather have a choice in a town to hop around different restaurants and get a feel for the culture of a city, ya know?
It's like Vegas, but worse. As I mentioned, there's the 2nd rate entertainment... but on top of that it's like a pep rally where the cruise ship personnel are trying to get everyone all pumped up. They use the crowd to entertain the rest of the crowd, and it's slightly retarded. The worst however is that they're constantly trying to sell you something left & right. $20 for a bingo card because you (insert fake excitement here) just might win $500! or $7 for this, $10 for that.... but it's ON SALE! oy.
I had the impression we'd kind of be in hotel rooms, but on a ship. Little did I know the cabins were so small! No biggie really, since they cleaned the room like a hotel, but I was amazed at how horribly un-functional the bathroom was in terms of giving you space to put your stuff. No shelves anywhere! They gave us pop and water (to buy) and new ice - but no cups! weird. And the small twin beds injured all 3 of us over the span of the 4 days, because any time we went to turn over in the middle of the night we'd smack an elbow or a knee on the wall. ouch! Overall it was very cramped quarters for 3 girls. However, I will say the best part of the room service was the towel animals they made and left on my bed when they came in at night to turn down the covers - and the tasty after dinner minty chocolates. :)
Final gripe: There was not one person on that ship that I wanted to meet. There were a lot of old people, fat people, families, and even a few prize winning mullets. The cutest boy I saw was a sophmore in college. Probably no more than 22. Oh the thoughts I was having... shame on me! hahaa Anyway, I met him in the hot tub and we talked for awhile. He'll go far with those dreamy blue eyes. I got out after about 10 minutes before all the Miami Vice's* I'd been drinking took influence on the situation. :p
*A Miami Vice is a Strawberry Daiquiri w/ Pina Colada. mmmmm! My sister got one first (no alcohol, obviously, because she's only 13) and got me hooked.
Other (self-medicating) drinkies enjoyed on the ship were: my ol' standby "Gin & Ginger", and a yummy new blender drink discovery, that they called a "BBC": Banana, Baileys (awww yaa!) and Colada. It was SUPER YUMM!!!!!
We did however meet the sweetest old couple... married for almost 50 years, I just fell in love with them! :)
So ya, cruises: not my thang. Plus, unfortunately the weather was pretty windy & cold for the first couple days, and then we finally got sun on the last day that made it nice to lay out on the deck (something I was hoping to do a lot more of!). I got a bit of sun, but you'd have to see my faint tan lines to notice. Except hilariously I got a bit of a burn on my chest, however it wasn't even red! All the torture of a sunburn but you couldn't even tell by looking at it. haha! I guess that's a good thing, though.
The highlight of the trip was our visit to
Atlantis, which is this huge beautiful expensive resort in Nassau, Bahamas. Under the resort it has the largest marine habitat in the world! (
read more here). It was really incredible!!! I'll upload photos & videos in the next couple of days.
So, after our 4 day excursion, we got back onto land on Thursday and headed to Orlando's
Millenia Mall for some last minute holiday shopping. My momma got me this AWESOME sweater pullover from
Rampage (a store I fell in love with for the first time) and my little sister got me these super cute
Lotta Jansdotter sticky notes & labels from
Anthropologie (a store I've liked, but just rekindled and fell in love with EVEN MORE on this trip!)
Other wonderful gifts I was sooo fortunate to receive from my incredibly generous and loving Momma, were the
Altec Lansing iPod Speakers that I'd been wanting! yay! And my
new home phone, which ROCKS! I needed a new one for a long time, and did a TON of research before deciding on this one. I didn't think she was going to get it for me so it was a great surprise!!! I love it!
I truly got everything I could have asked for, and more! My Mom is so giving, and incredibly loving and patient with my sister and I. They're going through a whole new experience being out there in Jacksonville, and it hasn't been easy. It was the first time in both Haley & I's lives to not be in the wintery Steamboat we grew up in, and it was all too clear my Mom was a little shook up Christmas morning, too. :( xoxoxo As hard as some *very
family moments* were, it was good for us to be together. I would have to say some of the funnest family time we spent was after we got back to their condo, we worked feverishly on this 1000 piece puzzle and got pretty far! I am going to have to buy myself a puzzle - they're so fun!
Oh, I almost forgot, in my gripes about cruises... I never realized how weird it would be to get used to that queasy boat rocking. At first I was thinking it was me, but then realized it's not the soy latte that's making me lose balance (i.e. I'm not used to feeling tipsy at 9am!), but even WORSE is that they never tell you that after you get off the boat you still have that swaying queasy feeling for days afterwards!! uuugg!! I have it a little right now, even. But then again - with all this insane rain we've been getting here, it's quite possible that my little house has uprooted and I'm floating down the street.
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
We hop off this boat tomorrow and it couldn't come fast enough for me honestly.
I did however manage to lay out in the sun all day today, get a tan and finish reading my book, "The Devil Wears Prada". It was very entertaining and a fun quick vk read.
OK - just here at the internet cafe finishing up my minutes. (60 minutes for $24 - ug) but miraculously I haven't turned on my laptop once. They do have wireless on the boat, but it's about 2x as much.
I'll post all about Atlantis in Nassau yesterday (so cool!) and more about how horrible the shows on the ship have been. YMCA anyone? Worse: Macarena. Who the hell invented that dance and why can these people not let us FORGET IT! :p
OK - so tomorrow: Shopping in Orlando - then it's back to Jacksonville for Christmas... and then I get to go home! (San Francisco is the. best. city. on. earth! I miss home!!)
Hope you all are having a good week. I better get back to BINGO in the Universal Lounge now. oh boy!
Monday, December 20, 2004
They found my bags! woohooo!!
I'm just checking email quick and then we're off to work out, have breakfast and then hop off the boat to check out Freeport (our first stop in the Bahamas). The water looks very carribean out the window though!
Cruise's are "interesting". I am not sure this is my idea of a great vacation.. but we're making the best of it so far. Suffice to say I was dragged up on stage lastnight w/ 7 other people for some "game". However, I *was* wearing my neighborhoodie.... BERNAL HEIGHTS represent!!! :)
ok bye!
Sunday, December 19, 2004
well we're off today! minus one little snag that they lost not 1, but BOTH of my suitcases. *weep*
We're heading back to the airport now to see if the came in this morning. arrggg. The jeans and tshirt I'm wearing will not get me through 4 days on a cruise! Cross your fingers.
We get back here (Mom & Sister's house in Jacksonville, FL) on Thursday to celebrate Christmas... Getting here lastnight I realized this is the first house I've been in this year with a tree! It is a new place for all of us this year, but it still feels cozy and like home.
Sweet Lucia is taking care of the fuzzy pants back home. I miss him already! But I know they'll have a good time. I can't wait to get back & do all the crafty projects I didn't have time to finish up before I left! I'm really looking forward to the last week of 2004. With any luck it won't be that busy & I can just create, create, create!
I'll probably be online on the boat, since (taps arm) I can't stay away. But for now just wanted to say seeeeeee yaaaaa!!!!
Friday, December 17, 2004
Tune in to my friend Ted's
Bagel Radio Live show today - he's doing his top 10 of 2004, and this guy knows his stuff! He's on #10 now, so hurry -
click here & listen!
Some other fun things:
-
Make your own avatar!
-
Lego Spidey! Cool!
-
Spoof boy band gives props to the Mistletoe - hilarious and stomach churningly boy-bandish.
Happy Friday!!
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
As you all know, I've been wanting the
Altec Lansing speakers for awhile now... and my little sister just showed me the JBL's, which are more $ but look cool... so I thought I'd see if there had been any tests/comparisons done - and turns out there has been:
Operation Gadget's Portable Speaker Systems for the iPod Compared
Looks like Altec Lansing won out! COOL!
:::
That reminds me, I've GOT to update my iPod - and charge it! I've been going to the gym so much that I've run out of batteries! Which I never thought would happen since I charge it when I use it in the car, using the
iCarPlay.
Speaking of working out, we worked our legs hard lastnight! woohoo! With all this holiday stress, thank GOD I am working out. Without that little dose of a mental health pill, I'd really be in bed all day! :p
:::
Another recent obsession for me (and many others) is The Arcade Fire. Check out this featurette on them on
CBC Radio (hit Relaunch and you'll see them in the menu).
Wow... I gotta say I'm really feeling the Holiday crunch right now! I leave on Saturday, so I've got a ton to do before I leave... not to mention I honestly don't know I'm going to be able to let myself not work on this trip. There's so much to do, how could I possibly just take a week off? oy!
I've been having a really hard time sleeping lately... well mostly getting to sleep I guess because I just have so much swirling around in my brain. That and I'm usually ice cold when I crawl into bed, and even though the electric blanket is on high (THANK GOD FOR ELECTRIC BLANKETS!!) It STILL takes me forever to warm up & then *finally* drift off to sleep. The holiday blues is extremely apparent in the mornings when I can barely pull myself out of bed. Honestly I'd like to crawl back in it right now and not have to deal with anything! Needless to say, I'm just a little stressed. ug.
Finding a gift for Dad's can be the hardest... Here's a few ideas:
don't mess w/ texas - even though many of us don't even like using the word texas due to a certain man who is from there.. this site has some great stuff I think any Dad would enjoy.
Once I got my Dad a branding iron for his steaks :) I think that's a pretty cool idea. I think I got mine through Restoration Hardware... but
here's a site with a ton of them - or you can do a search on the web for them, too.
Another great idea for the holidays, is to send a pie or a beautiful plant, like the one's on Red Envelope.
Please leave any great ideas/gifts you may have!
Monday, December 13, 2004
Of course as soon as I posted this I found some sweet finds... check it out:
Ooh ooh!
Iron Giant - Special Edition!! yay!!! This is one of my favorite movies!
Veer has some great stuff on their site for the designer near you. Some of my favorites:
Lorem Ipsum shirt, and this poster:
Speak Up/Industrial.
motelgallery.com < love it all! they even carry stuff by susan ghahremani (
boygirlparty) who I love.
And lastly - but possibly most awesome! - is that tonite reading my
BUST mag, I found this site again that I saw a long time ago:
smallthingsdesigns.com - I am in LOVE with this jewelry! Especially the designs with 1 or 2 birdies, and the pods or stones in the "modern" gallery. Truly beautiful work!! I'd take a necklace, earrings, ring or all 3!! :)
buying for myself! I hardly ever shop for myself, so being online & checking out all the latest things in the catalogs has me eyeing things I want! :p
The latest find are these
awesome laptop bags from
Red Envelope... (which is a great place to buy gifts should you still be looking for something nice for someone you love). I already have my sweet
Booq bag, but that striped one there is soo cute!
Which brings me to my *Holiday Gift Guide*!!
It's nowhere near perfect, but I've been adding to it here & there until I got time to really finish it up - however to be honest I don't have the time today or tomorrow, so here it is.. now go get your shopping done!
Some fantastic online shops to do your holiday shopping:
Uncommon Goods,
WishingFish, and many more on my
links page under "shopping" on the bottom left. There's also some helpful guides I've read on
alexthegirl and
superherodesigns.
I desperately wish I would have been able to get my sh*t together to get an online store up for you all this year. Where does the time go!?!? But it's coming along, slowly but surely. In the meantime, shop at some of my crafty friend's stores!
Sarah Hatter's new
handmade laptop bags and purses, and my brother Max's online store:
Om Gallery
Some random items that I think would be cool gifts:
CHOICE! Your body, your mind & your reproductive rights. Buy a
T-shirt for someone you love and support this fantastic cause. I already got one for myself, I couldn't wait! pink on black :) woohoo!
Neighborhoodies! I've completely spaced showing off my new one! I got an awesome one that says BERNAL HEIGHTS. I love it!! I'll try to take a pic soon.
iSight (or other webcam) - You wouldn't believe how fun it is to talk to your far away family members and friends and actually SEE them at the same time! I just got an iSight and it's so fun to be able to see my Mom & sister all the way in Florida. iChat allows you to talk right on there, too. It's awesome! Show off new clothes, hold up the family pet, whatever... it's fun for all ages! :) (p.s. let me know if you have one, so we can video chat!)
A GC to an art/craft store here in town:
Flax,
Pearl or the
Art Store.
That last one would be a great gift idea to any crafty person you know (hech hemm :) And you could even throw in a little coupon book that has coupons that say "This coupon good for 1 whole day of doing crafty stuff!" and "This coupon good for 1 trip to the museum of your choice!", etc :)
Random stocking stuffers:
3 pack of
Blistex Spa Effects lip stuff. I'm a lip stuff nut and have tried just about every kind there is! So, I just bought these for myself, and they're all really great. Nice & small to fit in your pocket for a show, too!
Orbit gum, Bubblemint. Best. Invention. Ever. :)
And lastly - Look at how hilarious this is!
Wee Blocks "Designed to keep your baby's fountain of youth under control during diaper changes." hahaa! I know some friends who have needed this!
:::::
Wanna hear about some gifts that would stoke little ol' me?
Well, I'm pretty practical when it comes to gifts... that is, I encourage "efficient shopping" (read
my crusade written in 2001). Buy people what they want, so that your gift isn't sitting in their closet for the next few years, ya know? So besides what's on my
Amazon wishlist, these are things that would be neat to get for the holidayzzzz:
- Brand new bottle of Baileys and a pretty little flask (who's a lush?)
- Altec Lansing iPod Speakers (on amazon wishlist)
- New Sprint Cell Phone. I know, I've been asking for one of these for a long time, and really - who the hell is going to buy me a new cell phone when it's really one of those things I need to break down & do for myself. But hey - you asked me what I wanted! Ok, umm, maybe you didn't actually ask... anyway...
- Netflix Gift Certificate - I don't have Netflix and won't spring for it as I have enough monthly costs already... but I sure would love a couple months of this awesome service!!
Other than that all I can think of is jewelry - I am a huge jewelry nut and can always use some new earrings or a gift certificate to one of my favorite jewelry shops (
Gallery of Jewels).
I also would love a GC to
Ambiance - a clothing store here in the city that I never shop at for myself (because I hardly shop for myself at all!) but I want everything in the store!
::::
The shopping/mad rush to get everything done is definitely upon us. I'm not sure I will have everything out in time... but it'll be nice when it's done & I'm sittin in the Bahamas!
YUP! I don't think I've spilled that yet here, but I'm goin on a cruise w/ my Mom & sister! woohoo! This will be the first Christmas I'm not up to my ears in snow and freezing in 5 degree weather. I can't wait! :)
Saturday, December 11, 2004
There's a Willy Wonka remake coming out in 2005, which I am stoked to see, [
TRAILER] but I have to say, Johnny Depp (as much as I love him) seems really creepy in this. I really liked the original, how you couldn't help but have a soft spot for Gene Wilder, because you saw that he really is such a kid at heart and full of love for children... Who knows though, maybe they will make Depp endearing. Other than that - the new one looks COOL!
Friday, December 10, 2004
Viscosity.
A word you quickly learn when you're squeezing eye drops and ointments into your eyeballs every 10 minutes... the only time blurry is actually a good thing. :)
arcade fire was EPIC the other night. photos coming soon!
yesterday becca & i took a turbo kick box class that kicked my arse! i went back & did some cardio today to keep things movin before i stiffin up like a 2 x 4! tomorrow's gonna hurt.
lastnight i stayed up way too late working on a project for a client and then had to sleep in to get a semblance of 7 hours and now i'm feeling terribly behind today! but it's ok - things are getting done at lightening speed around here.
i went & picked up my first rolls of film from the lomo & the holga! And the good news is - they both work! woohoo!! now I just have to start taking more interesting photos - there were a few jems in these though, so i'm stoked!! i can already tell this hobby is going to be an expensive one. :p
umm... i think that's all. oh - except a big shout out to the whiz actionscripter in new caledonia (of all places!) that has helped me out BIG TIME this week! I'm hoping to refer him to some people here & get him a flash developer job. He's got da skillz.
Yesterday I had something other than Thanksgiving dinner for the first time in a week. haha
And sadly I'm all out of whip cream. Which might be a good thing. I'm all out of Bailey's though.. and that's definitely a bad thing. Now you know what to get me for Christmas :)
Speaking of - I'll be posting my list for Santa soon, as well as a list of fun goodies I've found online you might wanna buy for your loved one(s). Except bummer is I can't show you all my great finds or I might spoil some surprises.
I'm buying an iSight tomorrow!
OK, back to work.
Thursday, December 09, 2004
A lot of people have been asking me about my Lasik. Most people are very, very scared of doing it themselves. Understandable! I was too, but really I wasn't *as* scared the more people I talked to who had it done.
I felt fortunate because I know, personally, almost 10 people who've had the procedure. And since then the list keeps growing. As of today all of these people I know have had it done: My Mom, her good friend Irene, my friend's: Jeanna,
Paula, Julie, Vera (here's
her story) and 2 of Rick's friends, and even a few clients: Kevin, Paul and Mike. And I'm probably even forgetting a few people.
I just read
this girl's story of her getting lasik, which is pretty interesting. Overall, I'd say if you are wanting to get lasik and you are nervous. The #1 step is to go in and get a consultation. Just see what you are a candidate for and talk it through with the counselors. Don't be afraid to visit a few doctors in your area so that you go with one you feel comfortable with. The safer you feel about their knowledge, skill and staff - the more safe you'll feel getting the procedure done.
I won't candy coat it - for me the procedure was way more intense than I thought it was going to be. Everyone's always so elated they can SEE after those few scary minutes (and hours of uncomfortableness that go away after only ~ 5 hours) that they forget to tell you the procedure isn't a total cake walk. But it's also not THAT bad either.
For me to have gone through 15 intense minutes, and 1 hour of major uncomfortableness (before I drifted off to sleep for 2 hours) and now to just keep my eyes moist with drops all day for a few months... it is ALL sooooo worth it. There is not a day that goes by that I dont think at least once how miraculous it is that I don't have contacts in my eyes. That I dont have to worry about rubbing my eyebrow in some way that lifts my eyelid up & my contact pops out... or worry about getting a hair under my contact while I'm driving and have to totally stop - and with no solution use my saliva to try to salvage my contact that I *must* have in order to drive. I mean - aaall of those annoyances are gone!
Let alone how fantastic it will be to go traveling, scuba diving and snowboarding without having to worry about my contacts. It's pretty frickin cool.. :)
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
How great is it when you can go to a show and actually come away loving the band MORE than before you went?!?! AWESOME!!!
Pedro the Lion was excellent to say the least and way more rockin than I thought it was going to be. I loved his Q&A while he tuned his guitar... he's very personable and humble.
Total surprise (that I learned just tonite before going to the show) was the opener,
Half-Life Souvenir has
Rosie Thomas in the band! Neat! She was uber mousy and not very talkative like she is at her own shows. They were just OK to me, kinda boring actually - but cool that she was there none the less :) I might like them more on CD.
I was bummed though because I missed
Viva Voce - *unlisted on Slims website or anywhere else that they were playing!!* In tribute, I just bought their album off iTunes.
Next up:
Arcade Fire tomorrow night - I'm SOOO STOKED on this show!!!
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Random note: I've eaten Thanksgiving dinner (that I just made Saturday night in case you're just catching up here) every single day for the past 5 days. Sometimes for lunch & dinner! And I often eat punkin pie for breakfast. aaww yaaaa! :) I'd like to think it's my fantastic cooking... but really, who couldn't eat green bean cassarole every single day? It's SOOO GOOD! :)
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
how's that for the name of my new band? hahhaa
Actually it's my new vigorous routine. Ya see.. my left eye has been really blurry. We're talkin 'close the right eye & the left eye can't see the dashboard clearly, or the computer clearly' blurry. Pretty blurry. The thing was, it would be clear when I woke up in the morning but within 45 min-2 hours it would start to get really blurry and would get increasingly worse throughout the day. Then if the other eye got blurry at all, I was really having to squint to see road signs & stuff!
Needless to say I was worried, so I called the Doctors office (and the Eye Doctor called me back) and basically he said that they get calls all the time and that it's very normal while you're healing for one eye to be blurrier than the other & vis versa. That, and that blurriness is a sign of dryness, so to make sure I was putting drops in, etc.
Well, I had been, so I was skeptical that could be the problem, but I was willing to give it a couple more days and go in the following week (tomorrow) if it was still doing that. So 5 days of this goes by, which leads us to yesterday, and I talk to my Mom and tell her what is goin on and she freaks. (My Mom is a tad over-reactive when it comes to her children's health) She insists I go in right away, making me scared shit-less I have some 'wrinkle in the flap' that will never ever go away and I need to go in and make sure my flap is OK (insert more smothering motherly panic here).
Thing is,
Dr. Hyver has 3 locations, and yesterday they were in Santa Clara instead of Daly City. Adding a good 30 minutes to my drive down a very busy freeway, not to mention having to drop everything I was doing for 3 clients to take the trip mid-day. ug. But I was concerned (and annoyed with my lack of clear site), too - so I went for it. And really, panic attack aside, I'm thankful for her concern. xoxo
So, long story longer, I have dry eyes! wahoo! Everyone's different in this procedure.. and the thing is my eyes haven't been feeling as dry, but the vision blurring is a tell tale sign. Plus - the biggest culprit of all is the fact that I stare at a computer screen all day. It says it right on the eye drop bottles under "what causes dry eyes". Yup that's me! No wonder it was only a couple days after going back to work that they got *really* dry.
So I got plugs! Have you ever heard of this? Well, if you knew someone who has had lasik - or maybe more than a couple people, and they'd have to be close enough to you to be telling you the nitty gritty details - you'd have heard they probably had this too. What it is is they plug up 1 of the tear ducts in each eye, so that your eye isn't draining fluid as fast and you keep more lubrication on the eye. Cool! Apparently you can even get em taken out - but I think it's actually kinda neat. Man, modern technology these days!!! It's awesome!
So the GREAT news is my new vigorous lubrication plan is already working!! Normally by this time I couldn't see my computer screen clearly, let along across the room (with just my left eye that is) - and now I can!! I'm a lubricating MACHINE! hahahaa (double entendre, anyone?!)
OK - so a few general things to note here:
#1 If YOU or someone you know is going to get Lasik, please know that not all people have dry eyes. Some people never have a problem with it! And mine is probably just exacerbated by the computer use. I'm a zombie on this thing for a minimum of 10-12 hours a day. It's no mystery I have dry(er) eyes. That said, other computer freaks that have lasik might not have the prob at all.
The biggest piece of advice I can offer to any computer user: BLINK OFTEN
#2. This applies to all of you people out there with eyeballs - take note!
"Most over-the-counter tear replacement solutions contain preservatives, which are toxic to the eye if used more than four times a day."
SOURCE LINK
That said, any time you get Lasik they will tell you to use preservative free drops - which come in these twist off cap containers that contain about 4 or 5 drops. Also now I am using gels and ointments which are thicker.. and the ointment specifically can only be used at night since it's like vaseline on your eye... but the gel drops (TheraTears and Refresh Liquigel) I've been putting in the bottom of my eyelid all day and it works to still see.
Word to the wise re: Getting Lasik - budget approx $100 for eye drops, gels, etc! And be prepared for the healing process which for very few may take a couple weeks, but more realistically it's about 6 months to a year. Which now that I've had it done, I can honestly say it's a small price to pay for the next 20 years free of contacts & glasses = 20/20 vision!
Oh! And for more natural remedies - I'm drinking more water & I'll be picking up some Flax Seed Oil supplements.
The Better To See You With My Dear,
xoxo
willo
Monday, December 06, 2004
I had a dream lastnight that we were at some huge outdoor music festival... but instead of sitting in the stands with everyone I wanted to get closer. And as soon as I started moving closer I realized we had been WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY far away from *any* of the action - and that actually the bands were cruising down these slopes, like a ski mountain, but it was summer time so they were on wheels. So I devised some crazy skateboard/cardboard contraption and cruised down after them so I could be right up on the action.
As soon as I got closer I realized it was the Red Hot Chili Peppers... but "their people" also noticed me and tried to advise me I wasn't supposed to be getting that close. But I of course didn't listen and kept on with them.
Next thing I know Anthony Kiedis stopped and noticed I had a bottle of whip cream I'd been hittin as I went down the slopes (HA! I told you I'm addicted, I can't even put it down in my dreams!). So he stopped and asked for a shot of it, so I did (filled his mouth with whip cream). However, since it was a hot day the whip cream wasn't as solid as it normally is right out of the fridge... but he didn't care and instead motioned like he then wanted a whip cream kiss from me!! But I wasn't sure that's what he meant... and remember feeling like maybe I couldn't understand what he was saying, since his mouth IS full of whip cream after all. So I got close to his mouth but didn't actually touch my lips to his. But he seemed dissatisfied with that and kept leaning in for the kiss. And at that point I thought, hell ya! I mean helloooo Anthony Kiedis is trying to kiss me with a mouth full of whip cream, what am I waiting for!!?!? So I planted one on em.
:) mmmm... whip creaaaam.
Saturday, December 04, 2004
What a weekend so far!! Lastnight I had a company party to go to (one of my clients), where the drinks were free and shots were being given out like candy. OY!
It was held at Kate O'Brien's and since I knew it'd be free drinks & I know a lot of the people at this company who are so fun to party with, I took a cab. Smart decision as I was in no shape to drive later on. Needless to say, it was SUCH a blast!!
Later on I'd planned to go see my friend Hai in the mission where he had gathered a few people to celebrate his bday, so I grabbed a few of the guys and we taxi'd down to meet Hai & friends at Doc's Clocks. Then shortly after left & went to the Makeout Room, but after screaming at the top of my lungs over the music I realized I was getting horse and so we left & hit the LAC. By the time we sat down a few minutes later the lights went on - oh my god, 2am already!? It was a good thing... It was time to go home & crash! It was such a fun night!
Today I had an appt this morning, then came home & watched my TiVo'd episode of ER, ate some soup, and took a nap :) Then I read some of my book (I'm only a few pages away from being done! woohoo!)
And now I'm making Thanksgiving dinner. "WHAT!?", you say... Yup! Rick & I had bought all the fixings for Turkey day thinking we'd be chillin here w/ me recovering from lasik - but instead I was feeling great so we went over to Brad & Jina's instead.
So this food's been staring at me and tonite I'm finally cooking it! I'm excited! I have never made Thanksgiving dinner! :) I'm making the small Butterball turkey, garlic & rosemary mashed potatoes and a green bean casserole. I'll be surprised if I don't burn the house down! hahhaa.. I'm not much of a cook. I had to look up a recipe for the mashed potatoes for christ sake! hahaa
Anyway - thought I'd check in while the Turkey's roasting.
Later tonite I have yet another crazy night in store... My good friend Rebecca's having a huge birthday party. Her friends have planned something extraordinary and I'm so excited!!
Friday, December 03, 2004
Oh, we also hit
The Kills show at Bottom of the Hill the night before... who were AWESOME to finally see live. Why this band is not selling out larger venues yet is beyond me, I love them!!
I have some great pics from that show & the Neko show (thank goodness I snuck 2 in before the Bimbos security dood walked buy & snatched up someone elses camera!) that I'll post as soon as my battery recharges.
Here's a photo of
the thermometer in my house from when I woke up this morning. One word: Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I can't believe it's Friday already!!!!
My pretty friend Jem met me at Bimbos, and we watched the Sadies tell stories with their earnest, twangy ditties... between each one, thanking the "Ladies and Gentlemen" in the room. Quite quaint, and overall music you can't help but move and smile to. Especially considering the guy on the left (guitar and violin) was making some of the awesomest lion raaawwrrr faces while he sang. I told Jem how much he was cracking me up, and she (as I expected since she's funny like this) proclaimed she was just thinking how she wants to marry him. hehe I love Jemmy.
You know what else I love? Baileys on ice, baby. Yesterday had been "one of those days" - so on the way over I kept thinking how much lastnight was a night I wished I had a flask of Baileys on me something fierce. As luck would have it, while I was waiting for Jem out front I saw that liquor store across the street staring at me, so I just thought I'd go in & take a peek. What kind of lush buys her own Baileys to sneak in & pour over ice? Well, a budget conscious one! I got 2 drinks for LESS than the price of one! aaaaawww yaaaaaa! I did buy one drink there, to be fair. But the show was $20 alone, so it's good to try to save some $ on drinks :)
Speaking of.. have I told you about how awesome the Haagan Daaz Bailey's Ice Cream is? It tastes JUST like Baileys! It's sooooo creamy delish!!
But back to
Neko... Her voice is so beautiful, and her
long red locks are gorgeous! She's so down to earth and funny... but mostly I'm absolutely in awe of the incredible instrument that is her voice. I'm sooo glad I finally got to see her (I've seen her with New Pornographers, whom I love, but have never seen her w/ her own band).
On an unrelated note: I am addicted to whip cream.
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
My eyes have been doing good. It's interesting because as they heal one eye is blurrier than the other, and then vis versa throughout the day... but overall I cannot tell you HOW FRICKIN COOL it is to be walking around and then realize "Wow. I don't have contacts in my eyes right now... this is MY REAL VISION!!!" It's seriously trippy!!!
This first week my eyes have been pretty dry here & there, (which is normal and they just recommend eye drops all day long) but that seems to be getting better & better. At the worst it just feels like I have dry contacts in my eyes, so when it hits me that I have no contacts in my eyes and that dryness feeling will go away - it amazes me all over again.
Today is the last day of having to put in the antibiotic/anti-inflammatory drops in... but I still have to wear the goggles for a few more nights. Which are annoying because I like to sleep on my side and these make that a little tricky, but it's all about protecting your eyes from your hands while you're sleeping. I don't think I have a problem as I've been so hyper sensitive to touching my eyes - but it's better to be safe than sorry so I'm doing my best (although a couple times I've woken up with them off my eyes which is scary, because I think "oh no! what if I took them off & rubbed my eyes in my sleep!" but I don't think that's the case, I think it's just subconsciously they're so uncomfortable to my sleeping I move them up so they're not in my way.)
I'm not supposed to rub my eyes for 2 months. 2 MONTHS! I gotta say with my contacts I used to rub my eyes a lot cuz they bugged me so bad and it felt so good to just rub the shit out of them :) So that's been a change.... I can deal with not rubbing them like crazy - but it's amazing how much we rub/touch our eyes w/o realizing it. Having to become super conscious of this has been interesting. Easy in a lot of ways, as like I said I'm really hyper sensitive to them since I am so protective of making sure nothing happens to my new found site! But I'd have to say the hardest is in the shower. I think most people squeeze the water out of their eyes with their fingers- and with this new procedure I've had to be careful not to do that, and instead I just have a towel near me so I can gently blot the water away from the edges. I also have kept eye drops in there as I can deal with clean, soothing eye drops going in there a lot better than I can the chlorine water. Then I just close them a little tighter and open them and it's fine. If any of you are reading this who have had the surgery - I'd love to hear what you remember about all this, too.
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Oh, btw, I've been getting back into workout w/ Rebecca and I'm LOVING it. I'm really sore today - which is awesome!! I also ran into Hai lastnight at the gym, which was cool because I was hoping I would see him soon as today is his bday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAI!!! So I got to give him a day-before-his-birthday hug :)
I've been watching a lot of movies lately. Between the eye surgery down time, holiday and just overall trying to let myself chill & not work around the clock as much... here's what I've seen lately: Envy, Jimmy Neutron - Boy Genius, Matchstick Men, Love Actually, The Life of David Gale and we finally finished off Season 2 of Six Feet Under.
Envy was just OK... if not bad. :/ I love Jack Black, but this movie was kinda weird... It's no surprise it went straight to video.
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius - I've been wanting to see this since it came out. I love characters that are super geeky and make up awesome inventions that can do outrageous things. Jimmy Neutron has now joined my list of favorite geeks, that also includes: Dexter (of Dexter's Labratory), Professor Frink (of The Simpsons), and although he's not aaas geeky, he totally makes up cool shit: Calvin (of Calvin & Hobbes). The movie was fun to watch, 3D graphics wise.. and just overall silly & entertaining for a relaxing weekend movie.
Matchstick Men was great. Nicolas Cage isn't my favorite actor - but he totally didn't bug me in this movie & was actually REALLY good. The plot totally had me wrapped around it's finger and overall I loved it.
Love Actually was soo cute! I loved it!!! It shows how much love there is everywhere, and then more personally how wonderful and yet how difficult love can be all at the same time. To quote the 10 year old, Sam, "[What's] worse than the total agony of being in love?" I highly recommend it for anyone.
Finishing off watching all of Season 2 of
Six Feet Under... all I can say to this is aaaaaaag!!!! Now I have to wait till I can find Season 3!!!! Please oh please oh please Season 3, come out soon or have someone send me a copy!!!
Lastly, lastnight I watched
The Life of David Gale. WOW. Such a great movie!!!! I thought it was going to be totally depressing... but after checking it out again & realizing it has one of my favorite actors, Kevin Spacey, in it - I knew I had to watch it. That man does *not* do bad movies. Plus, Kate Winslet was in it and she too is a pretty fantastic actor. Bottom line is it's a movie that makes you think! It makes you think about how fast life can change, how insane the system is (down to how many incredibly intellegent people there are in the world, and yet some of the biggest idiots are in charge), and how much we sacrifice in our lives for the things that are most important to us. I really enjoyed the threads of philosophy... I think I should have taken more Philosophy classes.
Next up: Motorcycle Diaries!
