Post-Its: Invented by Arthur Fry and Spencer Silver

I have a love/hate relationship with mornings.  I hate waking up, but I LOVE the morning time. It's all quiet and dim, and everything is still sleeping.  It's very, very calm and it gives me time to bond with myself. I know it sounds really strange but I like to spend time with me. It helps me figure things out.  Clear my head.  Plan my future (even if it is just for the day). Mornings are the best time for listing (another one of my secret habits that I prefer to hide from people).  I have lists and post-its for everything. Grocery lists, To Do lists, lists of books I've read, notes of important things that have happened, etc.   Anyone who has ever just stopped by my house unannounced has probably seen the post-its on the walls and the lists on the counter.  The best part of any day is the morning. A cup of coffee, a pen, some paper, and a couple of those wonderful stickies invented by Arthur and Spencer.

Acutal image taken from our bathroom :)

I don't enjoy the waking up process, in fact, I flat out hate it, but I have successfully found a way to make it tolerable, and it has since become one of my favorite times of the day (I told you it was a love/hate relationship).   Missy B wakes up as soon as Dustin pulls out of the drive way and she quite contently watches Sesame Street (please don't disrespect my parenting skills, it's an educational show and pretty much the only TV she watches, aside from hockey) giving me a whole hour to transform from sleeping troll to human being. My zombie self makes coffee, takes the dogs out to pee, checks e-mail, makes lists for the day, and learns what the letter of the day is.   By the time the Street is over, I am completely functional and often even cheerful and able to enjoy the rest of the morning.

Dustin has spent years making fun of my post-its and lists, even though he quite often asks me to make lists for him, or reminder post-its.  This makes me smile. Post-its just make the world a better place :)  They are colorful, come in different sizes and shapes, and they stick to just about anything, not only that, but they remind you of important things that you may have otherwise forgotten (Dustin take out the garbage).

Coffee with the Wicked Witch of the West

My coffee preference of choice is a grande double cupped caramel macchiato, often with an extra shot of espresso, from Starbucks.  Yeah I know, it sounds like a douche bag drink and I know they cost almost $5, but I LOVE them.  I’ve even managed to burn through not one but two of my own espresso machines.  That’s right; I convinced one of the workers at my favorite Starbucks to teach me how to make my very own caramel macchiatos and yes they are just as yummy. *drool*

When I accompanied Dustin on his business trip to Portland, Oregon we went to the zoo and the most magical place that I had ever been to: Powell’s City of Books.  A massive new and used bookstore that occupies an entire city block and has over 68,000 square feet of

bookness, complete with a rare book room (which unfortunately was closed during our visit, but we still got to peak through the windows) :)  Best place EVER! I could have probably spent our entire trip in that one store and still not have made it through to my satisfaction.  Rare, out of print, first editions, signed by author, hardcover, paperback, nicely bound, you name it, it was there.  I even found myself getting a little overwhelmed when we came across the signed by Christopher Paolini Eragon; Eldest first editions (which I might add were in my price range unlike the Harry Potter set of the same caliber, which I fondled for a good 10 minutes) and I still kick myself every day for not buying them (mine aren’t signed and they definitely aren’t first editions), but I guess that’s what I get for being cheap.

Check out time from our hotel was 11 am and Dustin wasn’t finished work for the day until 4 o’clock. I spent those wonderful 5 hours sitting in the Starbucks around the corner from our hotel with $20 and the book that I was reading at the time.  It was my first run through of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, which has since made it very close to the top of my list of favorites.  Since being published in 1995, Wicked has been successfully preformed as a Broadway musical, which I would quite enjoy being able to see one day, and Mr. Maguire has successfully followed this book up with two additional books, Son of a Witch and A Lion Among Men, which dive even deeper into the wonderful land of Oz.  Wicked is by far the book I suggest the most to other people as it has a little bit of everything in it, politics, drama, romance, murder, mystery, talking goats, magic, and an untraditional point of view on a classic.  Needless to say, even though I still kick myself for not buying those signed, first editions, I did quite enjoy having several of my favorite coffees with Elphaba and her story.

Why it is always important to invest a few attribute points in healing.

Despite my best efforts to pretend that nothing is out of the ordinary, my husband and my horoscope have convinced me that I should post this to get it off my chest:
 

Three weeks ago I started to get some abdominal cramps and I passed them off as just your average icky PMSing BS. Two weeks went by, and they came and went and came and went before Mr. Awesome finally convinced me to go and see a doctor (yep, that’s my stubbornness kicking in, two weeks of 2-3 bouts of agonizing cramps every day and still refusing to go to the doctor). So last Sunday I drove myself down to the walk-in clinic (this was the easiest day to do this, they weren’t busy, and Dust could stay home with baby). There I was hit with not one but two pieces of “shocking” news. First of all, I had been religiously taking "the pill" and despite my setting an alarm to make sure that it was taken every day at the same time, the little bugger failed. Yep, one of those 2% failures. I was pregnant. Not exactly horrible news, but a bit of a shock nonetheless. We had just had the “talk” about whether or not Haven was going to have a little brother or sister and we had decided that she was enough. I had a rough pregnancy with her, and we weren’t sure that my body could handle having a second child. So holy shit I was pregnant again. Then came the second piece of news: the cramping was most likely because the pregnancy wasn’t going very well and that my body was miscarrying or, though the chances were very low (less than 2%), the embryo had decided that my fallopian tube was the place to be (otherwise known as an ectopic pregnancy), in which case it was extremely dangerous for me because the tube could rupture and I could bleed out internally. Whoa… Pregnant and most likely losing the baby before I even knew it was in there, a rather large pill to swallow in less than a minute.

So after a brief crying session and some instructions from the doctor to get some blood tests done and schedule an ultrasound in Vernon, I headed home to break the news to Dustin. I think he was more freaked out than I was. First blood test done, ultrasound scheduled, appointment with my regular doctor made. And the waiting game begins. Always waiting. Thursday we packed up baby and headed to Vernon for the ultrasound which would verify that the pregnancy was in the uterus and whether or not it was “viable”. And here we go with more bad news. The pregnancy wasn’t in my uterus, again I was among less than 2% and the pregnancy was in my tube.  So again I broke some more bad news to Dustin, and both of us had a little bit of a freak out and after a quick stop at Starbucks, we headed back to Salmon Arm with strict instructions on what to watch for and when to rush to the emergency room, in case my tube ruptured and I started bleeding on the inside. I went in to see my regular doctor as soon as we pulled back into Salmon Arm and after talking to a specialist they had decided to wait until the results from a blood test came in to see how my pregnancy hormone levels were. If my pregnancy hormone levels were dropping then it was quite possible that the ectopic pregnancy was miscarrying on it’s own and I would be in the clear, if they were rising then we would have to discuss other options which were either inducing a miscarriage with methyltrexate (a drug commonly used for the treatment of cancer) or laparoscopic surgery to remove the pregnancy from my tube (which is virtually non-invasive). So, home we went to wait some more.

At about 9:30 pm, I got up to pee and had to tell Dustin yet again some more bad news. We had to go to the hospital, like right now. After a brief discussion with the on-call doctor I was given a wonderful shot of morphine and I was shipped to Vernon in an ambulance, yep the sirens were blaring and lights were flashing. And again my poor, poor Dustin was silently freaking out. By the time I got to the hospital in Vernon the cramping had almost completely stopped, but they were going to hold me overnight anyways.

In the morning the doctors ran some more blood tests and my hormone levels had decreased a little bit (not a lot, but just a little bit), so we discussed the 3 options that I had. Option 1 was to wait and see if my pregnancy hormone levels continued to go down and hope that the ectopic pregnancy was in the process of terminating itself. Option 2 was I could take the methyltrexate to ensure that the pregnancy was terminated and then just wait for it to “pass”. Option 3 was to just go in and cut the pregnancy out of my tube and be done with it. Having already discussed my options with Dustin before sending him home with Haven the night before (having a science degree and the ability to use Google are two extremely handy tools) I opted for the surgery. I had been cramping for almost 3 weeks now and the methyltrexate was no guarantee that the pregnancy would actually pass through the tube. So though it seems a little harsh, especially since by this time I was feeling completely fine, my reaction was to just cut the friggin’ thing out and then I wouldn’t have to worry about it any more. I was put on the surgery list for the day and there I was left to wait some more.

By about 2:30 that afternoon I was bored out of my mind and I phoned Dustin and told him to come and visit me. Lucky I did. Dustin and Haven got to my hospital room at 4:30 and at 4:44 they came to roll me off to surgery. We got the rundown from the surgeon and anesthesiologist we said our “I love yous” and off I went. From there I don’t remember much, other than I was quite enjoying the dream I was having. Two hours later I woke up with a scratchy throat (from the tube they had to shove down there to help me breathe) and the doctor told me, her exact words being, “Holy, you have quite the pain threshold. You had a belly full of blood and it wasn’t bothering you a bit.” I smile at this. Nothing like having a doctor amazed at your pain tolerance :) So, it was a good thing that I had opted for the surgery. The worst that could have happened had happened once again. My fallopian tube had burst and I had been bleeding, a LOT, on the inside. They removed the pregnancy and my left fallopian tube, suctioned out all the blood, stitched me back up and I got to go home three hours later. I haven’t even thought about what would have happened if I had decided on Option 1 or 2, as there is a good chance I could have bled out and nobody would have even known until it was too late, especially since I wasn't feeling any pain. There was even a moment right before they came to take me for the surgery that Dustin and I talked about changing from Option 3 to Option 1 just so we could all go home.

Needless to say, it’s been a long week. I’m home now, my chances of having another child are substantially decreased, I only have one fallopian tube, and I’m in a fair bit of pain, but I am oh so happy to be alive :)

For the honor of Greyskull!

Anyone who knows us will not hesitate to claim that my husband and I are two of the biggest kids on the planet. We have spent endless hours of free time logged into the wonderful worlds of Guild Wars, Starcraft, and Diablo. We have made decisions based on the winner of the next round of Mario Kart and our Friday nights were never ever complete without the epic Marci & Cody vs. Everyone Halo game (which my team always won, with absolutely no help from me). Over the years we have collected little pieces of our childhood and display them proudly for all to see. Our living room is decorated with the traditional framed pictures of the Transformers and the Powerpuff Girls. Our bedroom contains a collection of original Transformers and an excellent copy of The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, our bathroom is covered in fun fishes, and our daughter has inherited a wonderful array of Rainbow Brite, Popples, and Care Bears (she’s not allowed to actually play with them, but they sure make her room look cute). My husband still gets into “playground” fights, though over the years the playground has transformed into the bar and I still find the simple pleasures in a big box of crayons and a coloring book.

We have been best friends for over 9 years and neither one of us would trade the other for anything. I have succeeded in finding the one person on the planet that I would willingly, no questions asked, do anything for and in return I have the comfort in knowing that he feels the exact same way. We have had many good times and a few bad, we’ve had terrific gains and have suffered terrible losses, but we have always had and always will have each other. This is the radio-active epoxy that has made us what we are today. We are and always will be the most solid super-awesome ultra punk ass demolition supreme pair on the planet.

3 years ago Dustin and I decided to celebrate our super-awesomeness the way that we thought would be best… We threw a super-awesome party complete with camping, karaoke, 3 am swimming, horseshoe tournament, late night poker game, and I think there was a marriage ceremony thrown in there somewhere too. So, even though I prefer to celebrate our actual anniversary in April, here’s to the anniversary of the day that we celebrated our super-awesomeness with friends, family, and savage ducks.

Dustin:
I promise to wait at least an hour before talking to you in the morning. I promise to always wait for the last paragraph of the chapter. I promise to offer you the last bit no matter how much I want it. I promise to give you space when you need it and to hold you when you are embarrassed to ask. I promise to never grow up on the inside while we grow old on the outside.

Marci:
I promise to maintain patience, to always wait for a save point, and to listen when you want to be heard. To give you your time and space, and to never invade your cube. I love you and am glad that you heard my heart song, even if it is just a boom and a doot doo doo. You complete me and I promise that forever and always, all my base are belong to you.

Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya.

Hrrrrmmmm....

What to say in an introductory blog... Hello my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. Muhahahaha. Obviously I spent waaaaayyyy too long working in that video store :) and I loved almost every second of it. Not everyone gets to go to work every day and shoot the shit about movies and video games, two of my most favorite of favorite things (right next to raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens). Though the job I took to replace the video store works my brain/intellect way more, I still miss the busy Friday nights of up-selling popcorn bundles to every single person in line. My absolute favorite was when we were raising funds for sick kids in hospitals. Nothing like laying the guilt on the the late night drunks coming in :) "Would you like to donate to the sick children so that they don't die? I'll give you this sticker if you do." Corrupt sounding but it's all for a good cause, and it worked.

My most recent job position has been that of "Mommy", which I refuse to talk about in any length in this blog, as I am trying to treat this as my escape from the wonders of Mommyville (as Christine calls it). Though I love my daughter to death, and I'm oh so happy that she's here and healthy and in my life, I still need time to be me. Because I'm Super Awesome (and not arrogant in the slightest).

One of my biggest passions in life (actually if you ask my Super Awesome hubby, he'd probably say it's my biggest passion) is books, so you'll most probably catch me talking, sorry blogging, about them a whole lot. I LOVE the way that they create images out of words, tell stories, are passed from generation to generation, and the way that they smell. Yep, that’s right, I’m a book sniffer :) Right now I’m reading a book about how stories are passed down through generations and how parallels can be seen across Greek, Roman, Biblical, and Native American mythology (amongst others). Sometimes I find myself wondering why I never spent my time in university studying literature, and then I remind myself that I like to interpret things the way that I see them, and not the way that someone else dictates (thank-you Mr. Ebeson and your color coded pens for forever ruining English Lit. class for me).

//:end.introductoryblog