Whining.....w/o cheese, please

I don't feel good. My head hurts, my skin hurts, my nose is plugged, I have a sore throat, and I feel very warm.

Beware of the crud. I caught it yesterday at 2:30...you might catch it next.

I'm Published!

Back in October, a woman in my neighborhood appraoched me to write an article for a college and university art magazine called,Creative Convocation, that she edits. I was very excited and flattered with the request and opportunity and wrote my article about "Modern Day Scrapbooking", particularly digital photobooks. The article was a lot of fun to write, and it is a bigger rush than I imagined to see one's writing in print. My copy of the Jan-Mar edition arrived on Saturday and I was so excited....I giggled. Yes, I giggled. The beginning and end of my writing career is in the pages of this magazine.

Um...I'ts a rose that done got printed on...

Ross and I went to the Utah/TCU game on Saturday. Beleive it or not, the Utes won. And, they wond convincingly, 80-45. Go Utes! Now, I'm all for promotion of sporting events, and even business ventures that touch a little bit on the romantic side, but on Saturday, things went a little too far. A company I will not name because I'll choose to not support a commercial entity on my blog, was handing out 5000 patent pending printed roses to all the ladies at the Saturday game.

I was handed one before I even realized what exactly it was and brought it home solely to take a picture of it to blog about.

Tell me how roses go with basketball!? At least it was red.

When was the last time you had your arteries checked?

Yesterday was my MRA to see if I have problems with all my arteries (particularly my renal arteries) and boy oh boy, did I have fun. First, the hospital was very punctual, especially considering that my appointment was on Monday, they canceled it and rescheduled me for yesterday without telling me. I hardly had to wait for anything the second time around and I did not have to strip down to my birthday suit, which I was super nervous about.

Upon entering the MRA room and laying down on a very narrow table, it was time to put in my iv, and knowing that nothing ever goes smoothly for me, at least the first time, I knew I was in for a ride. Lucky for me, my veins like to hide so I got to get poked, prodded, and had little plastic shunts wiggled around in my arms by two nurses, until they could find a vein that would work.

Once I was sufficiently strapped down, weighted down, and infused with dye, I entered the machine for a nearly 50 minute magnetic experience. Minus the fact that I was a little bit clausty, it was super loud (even w/ ear plugs), and at one point, my entire body started vibrating w/ magnetic waves and felt like everything tasted like foil, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. That is a good thing.

Afterwards, getting dressed, all my clothes, esp. my sweater were static happy and my mouth still tasted like tin foil, but it was cool I guess. It's not every day you get to feel like a magnet.

Ramblings of a Hypochondriac

I must admit, though my entire family will laugh at me, that I am a little bit paranoid about life in general....you might call that a worry wart, but I'll call it being a nervous mervis. The last two weeks have been interesting for me, and have made me start to think that there is something seriously wrong. Whether the seriously wrong is mental, physical, emotional, or somehow subconscious, I'm not quite sure. Lets say it's D; all of the above.

Last week I had a Dr. appt to check up on my blood pressure. Well, surprise, it's high! 136/100 is a little too high for someone my age say all the doctors. So, after being told that it is too high I was also told that I possibly have a heart murmur. Exciting stuff going on. A 15 minute appointment turned into an hour and in that hour I went from feeling fine and dandy to having severely high blood pressure, a heart murmur, an appointment with a cardiologist for an EKG, and more blood drawn from my right arm than I care to remember.

After exactly one week of being paranoid that my heart doesn't work properly and phantom chest pains (I told you I'm a bit neurotic), I had my first ever EKG. Well, my heart is fine...no murmur but my BP is high, 144/100 and the cardiologist thinks that it is being caused by my renal arteries....yes, that's my kidneys folks. I left the cardiologist with an appointment for out patient radiology to have a renal artery ultrasound because maybe, just maybe, the arteries that feed my kidneys are blocked, pinched, or closing up. Can I tell you that I am just so excited.

Additionally, in case you are wondering, my fingers and knees hurt because I think I have arthritis, my back hurts, and the right side of my top lip is tingling.

Have a great weekend. I'll try hard to stop being neurotic.