Busy Weekend

The Alabama PSU Alumni Chapter has officially been formed. Yesterday afternoon we had our first annual meeting and passed the chapter by laws. I was officially named the Business Secretary. I'm not exactly sure what I'm getting myself into and I'm really hoping it's not more than I can chew. I want to be able to contribute, but I have so much going on already I'm not sure how I'm going to add in all these other activities. Time management will be key.

After the meeting we moved everything over to On Tap at the Galleria and got ready to watch the Penn State vs. Iowa game. Unfortunately it was a disappointing one. Even with an A Class White Out and College Game day being on the scene our guys just didn't have it together. It was nice meeting other PSU people and finding out how they ended up in Alabama though. I left at half time and watched the rest of the game at home where I could yell at my television in private. Bettis was not too keen on the yelling and retreated to the office where he could return to his napping in peace.

Before everything Penn State I was running around all morning. UAB day started at 7am. This is where I set up a booth and talk to high school juniors and seniors about coming to UAB. Surprisingly enough there were more people there than usual and the students actually had questions about their potential dining options on campus. So not a complete waste of my morning. I made the mistake of dropping my stuff back at the office afterwards and got sucked into making 600 bagged lunches for the next hour. It was pouring down rain anyway so not like I could go to the farmers market as I had planned. It had let up enough that I stopped by and picked up the two climbing rose bushes I ordered last week on my way home though. I'm planning on planting them today. I also picked up some tulip bulbs at Lowes while making a return. But of course these are no regular tulips they are STEELERS THEMED TULIPS!! Well technically they aren't, they are called queen of the night and golden apledroon, but one is black and one is yellow so our garden will be Steeler black and gold come March! As long as the squirrels don't dig up and eat all my bulbs, which they do every year! I'm hoping the pecans coming in keep them occupied.

I also finally managed to find shoes for my dress for Rae's wedding this weekend and sparkly

hair pins. But alas I cannot go to DSW and only buy one pair of shoes. I did resist the $89 camel suede knee boots that in all honesty didn't fit quite right anyway. I did pick up a pair of mules! They are by Keen, made of all recycled materials, machine washable and purple! Did I mention there are super comfy too? I highly recommend them. Did come to find that my right foot it a little bigger then my left foot, but that's okay because I can stretch the tops out enough that they fit perfect. Best of all I did not feel guilty about this purchase because we covered need versus wants in my marketing class last week. According to my MBA Marketing professor all purchases are based on some type of need and have a purpose. So my need was for a pair of mules since we are moving into the Fall season and I can no longer wear my flip flops or my toes will get cold. Hence! Fulfilling a physical need. :) I'm really going to enjoy this class.

Today the sun finally came out of the hole it has been hiding in for weeks on end. Susie and I took the dogs walking at Crestwood park. They were ecstatic, seeing they hadn't been outside playing in at least a week with all the rain. My feet are now permanently pruned from my socks getting soaked. I'm going to spend the rest of the day taking it easy, planting my rose bushes and my Steeler tulips. I think Tina is going to come over to watch the Grey's Anatomy season premier that I DVR'd last week, hopefully I can talk her into Thai food for lunch. I call that a good day.

Ingrid Michaelson @ Workplay

My friend Tina had two tickets to see this Indie chick that her daughter had turned her on to at Workplay last night. She asked if I wanted to go, and me always being up for something new, said sure, why not. After downloading a song or two just to get a feeling o what I was getting myself into, I wasn't completely convinced, but she was decent so I figured it would be a good time with good company regardless.

After a great dinner, as always, at Newks. We headed to Workplay, where I once again was reminded why I love having a little car, you can park anywhere! There weren't any tables available so we introduced ourselves to a nice couple and asked if we could share their booth. They obliged, because the south is full of wonderfully nice people who just do things like that.

The opening act was an adorable little British boy, yes I said boy. I'm still not convinced he was over 20, but he was playing up the crowd. It helped that the majority of the crowd surrounding the stage was most likely still in high school and they were swooning over the English accent. I won't say I wasn't immune to the accent. Tina and I bought his album after the show, so his charm worked on us too.

But to the point of this post. Ingrid Michaelson. Wow. She was phenomenal. I am so glad I went and have now downloaded her entire discography. Here is one of her more popular songs. The video is a little weird, but the song is great. Warning... it will get stuck in your head. The Way I Am . On top of being a great singer, the show was highly entertaining. She was so down to earth and was cracking jokes. She seemed like the kind of person who you could just hang out with. And they sang a song about mexican food, so there you go. If you were looking for some other good songs of hers I would recommend: The Chain, Incredible Love, Breakable, Far Away and Soldier.

Take THAT TTP!

This week was a great week. I went in for my labs on Tuesday and everything was perfectly normal. My platelet count was at 285, which was my goal number to get back to. I'm feeling stronger and not getting as tired. Even though I was still working part time I was working between six and seven hours a day. To top that off I had stuff to do after work pretty much every day this week. So I was out and about, not just coming home and taking a nap. So I'm doing awesome!

Wednesday was the Blazer Cafe Grand Opening. Which had I not been laid up for four weeks probably would have been a little more spectacular than it was, but I was still happy with the turn out. We had a giant cake that was decorated like a ribbon and the president of the university came out made a little speech and cut the ribbon cake. It was seven sheet cakes long. It was one big freaking cake. Of course things are always going to go arye at the last minute. My student assistant sent me an email on Tuesday saying she had been confined to her room with possible swine flu. I thought it was ironic that she had swine flu when she was supposed to be my Chick-Fil-A cow. :) But we were able to find another student to fill in. Here's me leading the cow around.

Thursday night I hosted Bunco. Which was so nice because we haven't had a good bunco turn out in at least two months and I was in the hospital for last months game. Most of our group came out even though it was monsooning outside and we had a great time. Jason and Hollywood did not leave the house this time and had to listen to the constant whistle blowing and hearing random women scream out "BUNCO!!"

This morning I woke up around 6am and even though it was misting outside I felt like getting out and running. I had gotten an email from my running group that they were meeting so I got up got the dogs together and at 7:30am we started our 4 mile walk / run through Mt. Brook. And of course it rained the entire time, but I made it. Four whole miles, walk a minute run a minute. Part of the trail was flooded over so we had to take a detour, but I was just glad that I was able to get out there and start running again. Take that TTP!! Can't hold me down!!

From there I picked up a pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks, which I am so glad they brought back because it is my favorite seasonal coffee ever! Went to Wal-Mart to pick up wings, went to the bank then the farmers market and came home to find Jason and Hollywood setting up a second TV in the living room so we can watch the PSU game and Alabama game at the same time without having to flip channels. I'm heading up the street to Liz's at noon to have my hair re-platinumed. It's been almost two months!!! Way too long. And her neighbor is going to see if she can let my MOH dress out just a tad since the steroids have made me so puffy all over that my dress is just a little too snug.

Hopefully now that I mentally know that I can run without passing out I can get back on my work out train. I'm thinking gym tomorrow to hang out on the eliptical for a bit. Can't swim or my newly bleached hair will turn green, and no one wants that. I'm running down that recovery road and TTP is officially now my bitch!! :)

Unmotivated

Somehow TNT knew that if they played the Lord of the Ring Trilogy today that I would sit on my couch and watch the entire thing. Even though we own the whole trilogy on DVD and it's much shorter to watch it that way since I don't have to deal with the commercials. Yet here I sit watching The Return of the King, commercials and all.

What I should be doing is writing my MBA Assignment paper on Blue Ocean strategies and reading chapters 3 and 5 for my class tomorrow. But LOTR is so much better then both those options.

I wasn't entirely useless today. This morning I got up and met my friend Suzie at Crestwood park. We let the dogs play and walked around the perimeter of the football field. It's going to become weekly thing. A nice way to transition back into running.

There was a younger couple with their toddler and dog there when we arrived. I later ran into them at the Avondale church. I went again today and enjoyed the sermon again. The pastor has a sense of humor, I like that. They had a luncheon today and while I wasn't going to stay he caught me as I was about to head out the door and convinced me otherwise. I talked to a bunch of other people that live in the neighborhood and they were are happy that I was there. One woman is already trying to sign me up to help with some of their events.

I finished the book I was reading last night and highly recommend it for anyone looking for a good read. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. A great read and based on the circus culture during the great depression. I think I'm going to start on the Time Travelers Wife next so I can go see the movie when it hits the dollar theater.

If anyone out there has a mac, I'm looking for a good hard case to put on the outside of my laptop. Any suggestions?

I Heart Fridays

Today has been rainy and gross all day. In turn just making me feel blah. It doesn't help that I feel like the Pillsbury Doughboy walking around. My face and neck are puffy from the prednisone. And while I was trying to convince myself that it was just me being overly sensitive, one of our employees yesterday pointed out that I was all puffy in the face. So it's obviously not just me. It will go away eventually once I start tapering off the steroids, but I just have to deal with it until then.

I had texted my neighbor, Abby, last night about going walking this morning, but then fell asleep before I got a response. So I didn't get up in time. But did get a phone call at 7am. Abby still went walking and in the process two freaking adorable pitt bull puppies followed her and Jackson home!

It might be a good thing that I didn't get up and go walking this morning because then I would have two puppies in my house.. :) I went over there when Abby got home from work. I took them our baby swimming pool and helped Abby scrub them clean. They are covered in fleas, but absolutely adorable. I'm sure someone will want to welcome them into their home. Jason has already said it will not be out home. And as much as I would love to adopt and save as many puppies as possible, he is right. We can't take them all in. And we have two very wonderful, very needy dogs as it is.

My friend Jason came over tonight and we watched the first disk of Wonderfalls. Which is a great show. Fox only aired the first four episodes and there was only ever one season filmed. It is fabulous. I might still watch a few more episodes.

This weekend is ArtWalk. If you're in Birmingham I encourage you to go. It's a great event downtown. I'm still going to try to swing down there tomorrow. Artists come to showcase their art in downtown business buildings. The business districts shuts down a few city blocks and people can just walk around, enjoy the city and enjoy the local artists. Check it out.

Time is Flying

I cannot believe it is already Thursday. This week is just flying by and I'm doing great. Today was day three at work and while I still get pretty tired it's not unmanageable. Yesterday I had a meeting in the Hill Center which is down the hill from where my office is, I was running a little late and even though I was going down hill the walk wore me out. Walking back I took it much slower. I got to see a lot of people on the UAB side who were happy to see me and asked how I was going. It makes me feel like I've made an impression and that everything I do on a day in day out basis is noticed. It's a good feeling.

Wanted to show off our awesome new ceiling fan that my dad helped us install:

Don't mind the dirty kitchen, focus on the fan! Now Tuesday, I cheated, we got Chinese take out, so I didn't really cook in the kitchen with the new fan. But Wednesday! I made cake in the morning and macaroni and cheese for dinner. Both times it was so much cooler. I love it. :)

And now here's my cake:

What's it like at 5am?.... DARK

It's 5am and I'm awake.... again. I can't sleep through the night with the prednisone and even taking Ambein doesn't get me to the nice 7 or 8am hour I'd like to get too.

Yesterday actually went very well! Much better than I had anticipated. Everyone was really nice and said they were glad to see me back. And I was able to jump right back into the swing of things. I had to reorganize my desk, but other than that it was good. Brent and I were on the same page about what needed to be addressed first and then we quickly went over some other items that are high on the agenda list before he had to head out the door. I was in the office from 8:30am - 1:30pm. Right at five hours. And it was exhausting. I completely understand why the doctors didn't want me going back full swing immediately.

I went to Kirklin Clinic after work and ran into the 4th year med student who was with Dr. Boone on the day I went to my family doctor. She recognized me, which I thought was nice and I was able to tell her what the hospital had determined. I guess the hospital sent my blood results back after they ran them in the ER and they were surprised at how low they were and how well I was still functioning. She's no longer on that rotation, but was glad to see that I was doing so well.

They ran a slew of extra tests in the lab and had me pee in a cup. In my appointment on Friday the doctor let me know they were going to do this. They are looking for antibodies. When I went into the hospital I had a whole, whole bunch extra which was the TTP. But he wants to make sure that I'm not producing extra antibodies for some other reason. I think they are still trying to nail down a cause for this whole TTP thing and not knowing the cause makes them want to dig deeper. And if it just requires more blood and more tests I'm okay with that. I have enough blood now to spare some.

I watched the move Ghosttown when I got home. Not great, but not awful. I wouldn't go out and rent it, but if you have Netflix and need a dry humor film to put in your cue it might be worth the watch. Jason didn't get home until almost 6pm and after settling down for a few minutes he went fly fishing at Avondale pond. He admits he's not that great at it yet, but really enjoys it. I'm glad my dad was able to show him the basic mechanics and I know he'll be out there almost every day until my dad comes down again in the spring for their fishing trip.

One other tid bit about prednisone. It makes you puffy. I talked to a friend of mine who was on it years ago and she mentioned that it changed her face. Now I hadn't noticed it so much in myself, but yesterday I did. My face looks rounder and my neck around my collarbone is all puffy swollen looking. I asked the nurse what is was and she informed me it was the prednisone. Sad day. As I start to taper off the drugs the puffiness will go down, but it's not immediate.

Today's agenda!! Hang out at the house until 10am then head to the office. Work on the menus for the website, advertising for the Blazer Cafe Grand Opening next week and then I have a meeting at 1pm about the UAB Canned food drive and our weekly managers meeting at 2pm which I'm sure will be fun and informative as always. Should be a fun day!

What it is and what it will be

Today is Labor Day, where people across the country are firing up grills, spending time with family and friends and just thinking I don't have to go to work today. I haven't gone to work in four weeks. I'm cleared to start working part time tomorrow and it's daunting to say the least. I'm edgy about going back to the office. Past the initial week to week and a half of my hospital stay there has been little support, whether by choice or just out of sight out of mind I don't know, but I'm nervous about going back in and it not being the same.

Not to mention that right now I'm only going to be working part time, so 4-5 hours a day. I'm sure that will make some people unhappy, but there's nothing I can really do about that. Other than the initial discomfort of seeing how it goes with my co-workers and reclaiming my cubicle space I am looking forward to going back to work. There is a certain comfort in recollecting the normal pieces of my day to day routine.

Yesterday was one of those for no reason emotionally trying days, we are going to blame it on the steroids again. Which even at 50mg are still having an impact. My dad and I walked down to the United Avondale Methodist Church which is about three blocks from my house and attended the service. Church has never been my thing so to speak, but it was comforting to go. The congregation was small, but Alabama did play in Atlanta the night before, and the pastor said a lot of people were out sick. I think I will go again. I enjoyed the sermon, he has a sense of humor, which is important because with everything else that's weighting on my mind I don't need to be made to feel worse.

I made lunch, feta and spinich turkey burgers, showing that I do have some of my dad's cooking genes. And then we went for a walk on the Cahaba River. Now I will say it was a little more than just walking down the sidewalk, there was gravel and hills and nature involved. And it wore me out. We ended up walking a little less than a mile total and that just wore me out for the rest of the day. When I start back tomorrow I'm going to go to the REC Center and swim laps afterwards. I figure that is a low impact exercise that will help me get back in shape and help cool me off since I tend to get really hot in the afternoons. We'll see how that goes.

Today's project: putting up a ceiling fan in the kitchen. Jason is not thrilled. I mentioned it to him and one point and like many of these things I think he blew it off. I had talked to my electrician about it and he said it could be done. So on Saturday my dad and I went out and found a fan! It's white with brushed nickel, a little on the modern -industrial side and since it's white it should blend in with the ceiling. I'm hoping that it will help air circulate in there while I'm cooking because it gets hot, hot, hot. This ceiling fan should be a lot easier to put up when compared to the one we installed in the bedroom. For that one Jason had to crawl around in the attic, not a very fun time.

Tis the Season... for FOOTBALL!

Officially it started on Thursday, but today is the day that great man known as Joe Paterno will run out on to one of the most beautiful stadiums ever constructed known as Beaver Stadium. No doubt that it is slightly chilled and on the damp side, but that's what makes it Happy Valley. Sigh... to bask in the glory of Penn State football just one more time....



Well until then we have the Big Ten Network through DirectTV and will be watching the whole digitally televised molly whopping of Akron from our couch. Bettis, although we have tried for years to convert him, still holds true to his name sake and only come out when Notre Dame is playing. Silly boy.

My dad flew in on Thursday and after getting him checked into the Marriott downtown we walked the hospital mazes to the Kirklin Clinic so he could meet me there in the morning. We hung out on the back patio and watched Bettis play with his rock will completely destroying my hopes for ever growing grass. Then headed out to the Summit for a dinner at Carrabba's.

For those of you who don't know. I don't check my voicemail messages. Rarely if ever. So after dinner I had a missed call from the Apple store, obviously my computer was ready! JOY! Wrong. We got there and found out there was some other internal error that they were not able to correct yet, but someone would call me back. They are convinced that I dropped it or something, but I really didn't. I guess if I was in there place I would make the same assumptions. But there is a possibility I may have lost everything. Which means all my pictures. Sad day. If you have pictures of you and me send them my way so I can start rebuilding my photo library when I finally get my mac book back.

Yesterday was a big day. I had labs at 7am, my dad did find his way over there to meet me. Then we waited for my follow up apt with Dr. Doom and Gloom at 9am. Now when I left the hospital I requested to be put on the other doctors service, but they do what they want. Then this Dr.'s nurse was just so nice that I hated not to have her any more so I stuck it out. And surprisingly the appointment went very well. He was much more pleasant.

My numbers look great so they are cutting my steroid dose down to 50mg a day, which should help curb some of the crazy side effects. It will taper off from there by week so I should be totally off them in October. I was cleared to go back to office work part time! So that will start on Tuesday, to the chagrin of people there I don't know, but I'm looking forward to it. They are going to run some extra tests next week to check my antibody levels. They were extremely high when I was admitted and he wants to check that they are back to normal. If they are still elevated they are going to send me to a rheumotologist.

After Kirklin my dad and I went to the Asian Market to get items for dinner. Then off to get the dogs food. Somewhere in there we also stopped at Publix and I got a thermometer. Which I really need since I get extremely hot in the afternoons and need to know if I'm running a fever. We made Thai coconut chicken soup for lunch and watched the Monk Marathon on USA until it was time to start dinner.

I learned how to make spring rolls! Which while not being too flavorful on there own are great with some sweet chili sauce. After taking him back to the hotel I crashed. A lot of activity for one day. Guess it's only going to get more demanding from here.

Jason went out fishing this morning, had to go early so he could be back by 11am kick off. My dad is walking from the hotel and then we are going to go to the Pepper Place Farmers Market which ends soon. And if there is time take the dogs to get their vaccines at the GBHS. If your in the area and need your pets to get vaccinated go there between 12-2pm the first Saturday of each month. Much less expensive than going to your vet. (www.gbhs.org)

Tonight! We will grill out steaks in the backyard and watch the Alabama Crimson Tide! Sounds like a good day all around.

September!!

I made it to September. So things are bound to look up. Today has been an okay day, having some issues with work, FMLA and working from home. But I've been reading up on the Department of Labor website and think I have all my ducks in a row, so everything will get worked out.

Apple called to let me know my replacement screen is in... YES!!!!! So Jason and I will be making a quick trip out there this evening to drop my computer back off and hopefully they will have it fixed by tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed.

I'm not caught up on Project Runway and totally agree with who has been kicked off thus far. And have one more episode of Top Chef to watch. I would love to be a food taster for one of those shows everything looks so good!

Tomorrow I have labs again, hopefully everything is back in line with normal where it should be and then I have my follow up doctors visit on Friday. If all goes well they should give me the go ahead to go back to the office part time. I'm really hoping so because there is so much I feel I'm missing out on. I really want to get back to my routine and just get everything started again.

So keep your fingers crossed for me! Also, started working on thank you notes but I have a lot a lot to go. Thanks again to everyone for your support!