Health hiatus

It's redundant to mention that I'm taking a blog hiatus as the lack of posts probably made that pretty clear. I haven't been able to get my chronic pain under control since having Everett and with the combination of PT and some really nice pain killers, I'm finally making this my first priority.

Until you get a glimpse of what it feels like to not be in constant pain, and the related inactivity, you can get so blinded by how much it's affecting your life. But once I saw how active and productive and happy I was for those few hours of respite that the prescription pain killers gave me, I had no idea just how stunted I'd become.

So I'm taking a few months to kick this thing and get my life back. I'd like to relaunch with a new blog design, better content, and a regular posting schedule. Thanks for sticking around and I'll see ya on the flip side...

Musical Input Needed

In case you haven't been able to learn this for yourself - or have absolutely no desire to - having a baby... rearranges things.  Not emotional things.  Not your life.  Yeah, I mean all that happens too, blah, blah.  I'm talking about your body.  Not to gross you out too much, but your BONES SPREAD during pregnancy.  Ugh.  And I think they enjoy all that extra room away from those other pesky bones and just decide to stay there.  I've read things that say in 18 months they'll eventually go back, but first of all I don't buy it, and second of all, I'll probably be pregnant again in 18 months, so it doesn't help me anyway.

As of today I weigh less than I did when I got pregnant, but thanks to the aforementioned bone thing and the fact that pregnancy weight isn't kind enough to distribute evenly, I'm still squeezing into things.  Also, my shoe size is more like an 8 and less like the 7 1/2 it used to be. 

So I come to you with a request.  No, not gift certificates to the mall, although that would be awesome and my email address is listed under the Contact Me page. I need to reinvigorate my workout playlist.  It's pretty much the same it was 2 years ago when I got pregnant.   And, hey, I love me some Tootsie Roll as much as the next gal, but I'm getting bored.

So send me your workout favorites!  And remember, we're not going for quality here, music snobs needs not apply.  Send me all the cliche, embarrassing, get-your-ass-moving songs that you can think of.

I'm hitting the gym again on Thursday, so send 'em quick!

Autism Article

Ran across this article today on The Huffington Post:

Cracking the Autism Riddle: Toxic Chemicals, A Serious Suspect in the Autism Outbreak

Movin' Things Around

It was a weekend of productivity around here. Three days of moving, organizing, throwing out, weeding out, and more, all in preparation for our eventual move. There's plenty of progress I can make during the week by myself, but then I get stuck and have to start making B a Honey-Do list. He's been sick for the last three weekends (foot, cold, knee, etc.), so we had been falling behind. Plus, the next shipment of bubble wrap came so I can start packing boxes again. Woo Hoo! I sound facetious, but I'm actually completely serious. Every packed box makes me feel like we're one step closer to getting to Albany.

We capped off the weekend with an absurdly expensive trip to the grocery store and then some Sunday night cooking - meatballs, homemade sauce, New Orleans shrimp, cornbread, etc. Lots of yummy treats for Oscar night. We only made it to 10:30pm though, so I had to read about some of the winners this morning.

Also this morning, I decided to attempt a slow dive back into the fitness pool with some yoga. All I can say is - damn. Taking five months off for my injury, morning sickness, and pregnancy has not done good things for me. I mean, 30 minutes of slow yoga is pretty much the easiest and slowest exercise you could possibly do and yet I still feel creaky and over-stretched. Apparently physical therapy exercises don't count for jack when it comes to overall fitness.

And lastly, a warning to anyone who dares call the house this week - we are on high alert baby watch for our niece or nephew and panic ensues every time the phone rings. So if you call I will inevitably sound disappointed when I answer. It's not personal - it's just that you're less exciting than a new baby.

Immune System for Sale?

This past Saturday, the first day where I would have been able to stand and walk and catch up on life after my back injury, I was shot down with an intestinal illness that knocked me out for much of the weekend. And while this really isn't interesting for anyone to read about, I just have to vent and say how horribly frustrating it is to be sick for this long and how frustrating it is to go through life with a chronic health problem.

I feel like I do a pretty good job of keeping my spirit up on a daily basis with my back pain. And it's true that I can't lift, can't run, can't sit on a hard surface, etc., but when it comes to day to day activities, I can do most things. However, when the injury gets acute, as it did this past week, and completely debilitates you and you're told by two specialists that it was nothing more than bad luck and is just a symptom of your condition, it's incredibly disheartening.

Last week when I was bent in half and wearing my brace, I was telling B that I was shocked at the sight of myself every time I went into the bathroom. I couldn't move and was wearing a huge sweatshirt, but when I went to use the bathroom, I'd have to lift up my sweatshirt and remove the brace and the reflection in the mirror was startling. I felt like I was a hundred, with creaky and gnarled tree limbs for joints, yet what I saw was a very small and very fit woman in a small purple tank top and it was such a jarring difference from what I felt like. It brought my frustration to life in such a vivid way.

And when you're on the couch for an entire week and when it's a problem that won't go away but will just get a little easier to handle, it makes you feel old. It makes you feel older than your peers and unable to participate in life. It makes you question whether you'll ever be able to lift your children up or have as many children as you want, or what else you'll have to deal with.

And I fully realize that this is just a particularly frustrating period and that I really will feel better about this soon. However, a lot of the frustration comes from feeling like no one understands what you're going through, so in writing this, I'm hoping to alleviate a little of that. After all, the main reason anyone becomes a writer (or a blogger) is because they have a story to tell and a need for it to be heard. Whether it was my journals as a child, my writing therapy business in my twenties, or this blog in my thirties, I have always felt that I've had hundreds of stories that lived inside of me and this is just one of them. I would love to tell you that chronic pain wasn't part of my life's story, but it is, and on the grand scheme of things, it's less than what other people have to deal with on a daily basis, so for that I'm grateful.

If you're willing to share, I'd love to know from you what is the one thing that you wish people really understood about you? Even one sentence will do - what is the one part of being you that you wish people understood on a deeper level?

More thoughts on Hypermobility Syndrome

Woo Hoo!!! First post on the new desktop computer AND when I have the ability to stand if I want to. Big Day!

As it turns out I don't have a bulging disc after all. Once I saw the physical therapist and he was able to look more specifically at the location of my pain, he determined that it is too low to be disc pain because you don't even have discs where my pain was - who knew! For the anatomy-minded of you, my injury is in S2. He said that it's extremely unusual to have pain that low in the spine, but my body has never really been a "follow the crowd" type of gal, so it's not surprising.

He said that the injury is, in fact, from my Hypermobility Syndrome and is basically just the result of bad luck. Grrrrreeeeeaaaaatttt. He also explained something about the condition that I had never heard before: When a normal person gets up off the couch or transitions (going from up to down or down to up), their body knows that they're about to get up and fires all of the back muscles nanoseconds before actually moving. People with my condition are missing that connection between the muscles and the synapses and our muscles don't fire and tighten until too late, thus causing the spine to be constantly vulnerable to movement. That's also part of the reason why there is no cure to the condition, just lifestyle modifications and crossed fingers.

So that's the latest on Couch Fest '08. I'm able to stand so far today, but we'll see if it lasts. Our poor house is so disgusting and dirty and cluttered and nearly unlivable as a result of me not being able to do anything and B working long hours and having to do everything for me. I'm hoping to be able to take off one layer of embarrassing today by at least loading the dishwasher. If all else fails, I'll light some candles and make it smell nice while looking like squalor.

Olympic Joy

The other night B and I were staying up far past our bedtime (AGAIN!) to watch the Olympics when they announced that next up would be the individual trampoline competition. As both a former gymnast and someone who broke her nose and got sent to the plastic surgeon in 7th grade as a result of a trampoline game called "crack the egg" I started snarking about how could the trampoline be an Olympic sport, and isn't that quite a stretch, and it was never in any of our competitions, and blah blah blah. B, having equally fun but more drunken memories of trampolines, agreed that he couldn't think of how it could really qualify, blah blah blah....

Insert four feet into two mouths. Did you SEE those girls!!!!??? DID. YOU. SEE. THEM?! We sat there all scrunched up on the couch with our mouths open going "OH!" "Oh God!" "AH!" "Holy crap that was stressful to watch!"

It's a little like reverse diving in my mind. Instead of being freakishly high in the air and diving into water, the jump freakishly high into the air and perform inhuman feats of strength and precision. They start by taking a full minute to jump as high as they can. After this, they have to perform ten routines in rapid succession without taking additional bounces between, all while staying on the trampoline. I don't' know if you've ever tried to jump really high on a trampoline, but it's virtually impossible to keep your body in check and not go sailing off or land on a spring. These girls looked like they were several stories in the air. Not to mention that I have no idea how you can make sure you land on the trampoline when you never stop flipping and turning.

Bravo, girls! Seriously... I take it all back. I promise never to talk smack about the trampoline ever again.

As a side note, I have to say what a great pleasure it has been to have the Olympics on. It's such a pure and uncommercialized event to watch, and that is so void nowadays. These men and women have put in a degree of drive and effort that most people would never be capable of, all in the pursuit of a dream. 95% of them will never be recognized on the street and will not walk away with endorsement deals. It's so pure and authentic.

My own cousin spent eight years training for the Olympics in speed skating and the schedule he kept for EIGHT YEARS would blow your mind. Like most of the athletes, he wasn't sponsored and had to work full time while pursuing this goal. So he skated every day from 5am - 8am, worked for 8 hours, and then went back to the track and skated again from 6pm - 9pm. Everyday. For eight years. He also skated all weekend long. Unfortunately he missed making the team by hundredths of a second, as is so frequently the case, but from what I can tell, he doesn't seem to regret those eight years.

So, like many people across the world, the Olympics are making us permanently tired lately, but it's been worth every second.

Another Meal Success

We received the coolest wedding present yesterday! Some family friend's of B sent us a case of various wines from California with personalized labels on them. What a great gift! AND our wine cabinet is full for the first time which is awesome. It's never occurred to me to ask for wine as a present before, but I think we should from now on. It's so nice to have around to make any meal more special and it's a treat that we usually wouldn't spend the money on.

Last night we opened the Chenin Blanc, which is a wine we never buy but it was excellent. It's similar to a Pinot Grigio - light, crisp, flavors of apple and pear. It was perfect for our Brinner
(Scrubs reference to having breakfast for dinner). I would say we have Brinner at least once a week and by now B is a whiz at making amazing breakfast burritos.

Additionally, I had another meal success of my own last night that I was very proud of. I wanted a side salad, but when you're eating eggs for a meal a regular salad would feel too heavy, so I invented a dressing and it was great!! It was so light and delicious and actually matched perfectly with the eggs and the wine. Look how pretty!

Recipe - Juice from 1/2 a lemon, a few tablespoons of olive oil, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, and some dried basil. Whisk together and serve.

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Today's Humorous Visual - Yesterday on the way to work B saw a horse on a treadmill. Really.

Lost Weekend

Usually I would say that I have a case of Secret Immune System Arrogance. I don't get colds as often as other people and when I do, they're only about half as bad. I chalk this up to water, vitamins, a healthy attitude, and being an obsessive hand washer. B makes fun of me for turning him into someone who is hyper-aware of the cleanliness of his hands. Of course, for him, this means he's up to about 3 washings a day, but it's still a step in the right direction.

Oh how the mighty have fallen. I lost my entire weekend to a terrible and strange cold. It started Friday afternoon when I battled the day with a sore throat and then was told I couldn't volunteer at our Friday night museum event because if the mothers heard how bad my cough was, they would surely flood our phone lines with angry calls about how we exposed their children to sickness.

So I went home and sat on the couch and got worse. My terrible sinus pain and general illness meant that I was awake all night watching movies on TBS until 6:30am when I finally fell asleep for an hour. Then Saturday.... oh, Saturday...

Despite a constant regimen of Sudafed and Advil, my sinus and ear pain was absolutely excruciating. Did you ever notice that when you're that sick, the whole world just stops? Every minute of every hour is slowed down and your awareness shrinks to about a one foot circle around you. And then there was the weirdest symptom of all - the sneezing.

This crazy infection was accompanied by the most violent sneezing I have ever experienced. Constant sneezing that bent me in half and made my limbs flail out - I even accidentally kicked B at one point, doubling him over in pain!

So Saturday night I spent on the couch again, but I did get a few hours of sleep, so that was nice. Then a few hours into the day on Sunday, I felt like I was starting to come out of my coma. When I came into relative consciousness, I noticed 2 strange things: my hands and feet were covered in over 40 small bites from some ridiculous insect that found me on the couch the previous night, and I couldn't walk from all the sneezing. I have no explanation for the odd and gross bite thing, but my stomach and back muscles were in such terrible pain from the sneezing, I literally couldn't walk! Even now, I'm on constant Advil to deal with the soreness.

So, it's Monday morning at 5am and our weekend was totally shot, which really sucks, but I'm basically better now. I have to tell you that B was an absolute saint. He spent all day Saturday getting me tea, heating up the hot packs for my sinuses, getting me water, and cleaning the house like a mad man. I mentioned that we'd have to disinfect the house since we'd both been sick, and he went on a Clorox, cleaning, and laundry rampage. I didn't even know what he had done until Sunday at 11am when I finally got off the couch. Bless him - what a total sweetheart!

Hope your weekend was better than mine. I'll try to post more, I know I've been slacking lately due to the increasing insanity of life. But as the wedding gets closer and our jobs continue their pace, I can't promise anything!

Still Cold

Came home from work yesterday - still no heat. We reset the heater again, but couldn't get ahold of the heating guy or our landlord. This morning it's gone from 57 degrees to 61 degrees, so that's been a pleasant change. Last night we sat in scarves and hats under several layers of blankets. And let me remind you that it's still in the single digits with vicious wind here. B did some investigating last night and thinks the pump in broken. Too bad B's dad doesn't live closer - he could tell us exactly what's wrong.

In other news, I tried Tae Bo on Sunday. Thanks to Feather Nester's brilliant suggestion, I utilized Exercise TV on Demand (free) in order to add some cardio workouts to my pilates schedule. First of all, those people seriously must be on crack or at least ephedrine. Holy Crap!! What is wrong with them!?? Overlooking the cracked-up instruction, Tae Bo is not for me. Or more specifically, not for my back. It's just too fast with too much twisting and fast turning for my spine to be able to handle it. So it's back to Cardio Dance for me. I'll try some other programs on the channel and see how it goes.

This has been an interesting process though, it's really the first time in my life I've ever worked out. I grew up as a gymnast and then did dance after college, but that was working out by accident. I'm happy to report that for the first time I have actual muscles!! Arms and stomach. Right now you still have to be in dim lighting to see them, but they're there!

Dental Success

I did it!!!!! I finally went to the dentist after about 5 years. The first 4 years was a lack of health insurance and this past year was busyness and fear. But not only did I make a New Year's resolution to go (something I never do), I chipped a back tooth this past weekend in Albany. And there's nothing like being stabbed on the under side of your tongue over and over again to give you a kick in the pants.

B's dad told me that they had made great strides in dentistry over the past 5 years. It seemed like such an absurd thing to say that I thought he was kidding, but he wasn't. And thank god, he was right. I had a computer screen in front of my chair! And instead of two x-rays taken in a back room, I sat right there while they took about 2o detailed x-rays of each section of teeth. The pictures popped up on the screen and they explained everything. They also used this special camera - I think it was actually called "Denta-Cam" or something - and took full color pictures of my teeth so I could see exactly what they see.

Also, the cleaning was much less painful than I remember. Of course, I bled like a hemophiliac since I hadn't been there in so long, but it was still pretty survivable. I found out that: I brush too hard, I clench my teeth when I sleep, you should "hug" each tooth when you floss, dental bacteria is the same kind of bacteria that causes heart disease and strokes, one of my "i" teeth has 2 roots (very rare apparently), and my oral surgeon left a tiny piece of tooth in my jaw when he pulled my wisdom teeth (not a big deal).

And the good news? Only 2 small cavities after all this time! I figured I had an entire mouth-full, especially after B took a flashlight to my mouth to see the chipped tooth and announced to everyone in the room how awful my mouth was and how decayed it was. As it turns out, he should stick to engineering. The "cavities" he saw were simply the wear on my back teeth from clenching.

So now I'm converted. I am dedicated to perfect tooth care from here on out!

Easing Back In

I'm very slowly easing back in to normal life after a whirlwind of Christmas activity. B and I decided to stay at home this Christmas in an effort to make our holiday far less chaotic than last year, and I'm sorry to say that our efforts didn't quite pan out. What is that they say about the best laid plans? Our "at home" time got cut short when the storm forced us to stay the night in Buffalo after the game, then I once again underestimated how long it takes to cook things, and then it was off to Albany to see B's family. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing everyone, but it's just too much to try to fit all of your visiting in for both sides of your family in the span of 4 days. I'd much rather take more time in a month other than December and actually be able to enjoy the visit. I'm very grateful that today is Friday and that there is only one day of work before the weekend.

Yesterday was my last private pilates session and she definitely gave me my money's worth - I'm already having trouble moving today. I learned that I push my shoulders down too much and therefore have weak rhomboids. I barely even know what my rhomboids are, but apparently they're very weak. I have to practice bringing my shoulders up a little. which looks normal if you see it, but it feels completely unnatural and like I'm permanently shrugging my shoulders.

On a happy ending note, B finished the huge 3 month deadline last night, so there should be no more working until 10pm and no more working every Saturday. Wedding planning, here he comes!

Tofu Success!

B and I made Tofu Stir fry last night and it was really great! We've been wanting to incorporate a little more tofu into the rotation but really don't know how to cook with it. We tried grilled tofu last summer and that was no good at all. But my ex-roommate gave us some of her tofu stir fry a year and a half ago and it was awesome. So we tried it last night but it was a total shot in the dark because we had no recipe, never made stir fry before, hadn't just watched a Food Network show about it for inspiration, etc. We literally just hunted through cabinets and grabbed things that looked like they could be in the dish... at one point I looked at B laughing and said "I couldn't have any less of an idea what I'm doing!"

We made it in two parts - stir fry and sauce. Into the hot pan with olive oil went broccoli, onions, green onions, about 9 water chestnuts that we had in the freezer, the marinated tofu, crushed up cashews, and some pineapple. The sauce was coconut milk, natural peanut butter, yellow curry powder, cayenne pepper, soy sauce, and the pineapple juice from the pineapple can. Stir-stir-stir...combine...done! I seriously can't believe it tasted so good, it's officially in the food rotation now. At least we have one tofu dish we like!

Also yesterday was another private pilates session. And it occurred to me in the middle of it how mental of a workout it is. Just about every exercise they have you do can be accomplished easily if you're using the wrong muscles (using your hamstrings to lift your legs instead of your obliques, etc), but the whole point is to do your movements with your proper muscles. It's also interesting for my hypermobility problem. Because of my increased flexibility, there are a lot of movements I can do by relying on the flexibility of my spine, but the whole point is to find the tiny spinal muscles deep under your abdominals and use those. All very interesting... They say that "you'll feel different after 10 sessions and you'll look different after 30" so I still have a ways to go (I'm at 4!).

I'll leave you with the "Bonus Cookie" from the 12 Days of Cookies...

Coconut Peanut Marias

Versions of these cookies — named for a Grand Duchess of Russia after her wedding — are popular all over the world, but especially so throughout Spain as well as South and Central America. Packaged versions tend to be more biscuit-like; ours is nutty and textured: easy, kid-friendly, delicious and perfect for the holidays or any other time.

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup flaked or shredded sweetened coconut
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 3/4 cup chopped unsalted roasted, skinless peanuts

Position 2 racks in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (If you only have 1 baking sheet, let it cool completely between batches.) Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl.
Melt the butter in medium saucepan over low heat. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the brown sugar with a wooden spoon. (The sugar will get soft and saucy, but there may still be a layer of butter on top; don't worry, the mixture comes together as you add the rest of the ingredients.) Stir in the egg, then the flour mixture, taking care not to overmix. Stir in the coconut, oats and nuts to make a textured cookie dough. Set aside until it gets to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
Using a tablespoon-sized ice cream scoop (#60), scoop balls of the dough onto the prepared pans, arranging them about 2 1/2 inches apart. Bake until the cookies are golden brown with toasted edges, about 12 minutes.
Cool cookies in the pans for a couple minutes. Then transfer with a spatula to racks to cool. Serve.
Busy baker's tips: You can store unshaped dough for up to 3 days in the refrigerator. Store the cookies in airtight containers for up to a week. Freeze for 1 month for longer storage.

12 Days of Cookies - Day 2

I had my first Pilates class last night. My privates sessions don't start until next week so my instructor suggested I take a mat class in the meantime. Luckily, the classes aren't that popular at the gym (which is surprising to me), so it was just three of us in the class which allowed for a lot of personal attention to technique. Thankfully my co-worker, Ithaca Chick, agreed to go with me, which always makes it more fun. The mat classes are definitely different from the one-on-one sessions where you get to use all the fancy machines, but I still liked it a lot.

I like the attention to detail and the general principles of using the correct (although tiny and hard to find) muscles in your body. It makes much more sense to me than just a general gym workout where you might fall prone to using only your major muscles. Especially someone like me who isn't a gym-nut and doesn't subscribe to workout magazines and would almost certainly not have the knowledge to do a fully correct workout. Also, I had no back pain last night after my workout because my muscles were still tight from the class and therefore tight enough to be keeping my spine in the proper place. Hooray for immediate gratification!

And since I'm working my stomach muscles, that earns me the right to eat Christmas cookies, right? Here is Day 2 - a cookie I'm sure B would love since they're crunchy and spicy.

Moravian Spice Cookie Wafers

This cookie comes to us from North Carolina by way of Central Europe; it's a classic, peppery spice cookie brought to the U.S. by Moravians in the 1700s. The key to this cookie is rolling it super-thin to get that characteristic snap; it's a lot easier to roll it that thin between waxed paper. If you don't have the patience, go thicker, for chewy gingerbread-style cookies. Either way, these cookies would be fantastic on your holiday table.

• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon finely ground white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard powder
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 large egg yolk

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, pepper and mustard together in a medium bowl.
Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until just combined and lightly fluffy. Beat in the molasses and egg yolk. Gradually add the dry ingredients and mix together on low speed until dough is just combined and still crumbly, about 3 minutes. Give dough a few turns with a spatula to bring together.
Lay out wax paper on a clean work surface and put about 1/3 of the batter on top. Lightly press down and top with another sheet of wax paper. Using your hands or a rolling pin, gently pat into a rectangle. Roll out with a rolling pin until dough is as thin as possible without breaking, no thicker than 1/16 inch thick. This is the key to these cookies: they really can't be too thin. Gently peel back the layer of waxed paper and then replace it loosely.
Transfer rolled batter to a flat baking sheet and freeze until firm and can easily be peeled away from the waxed paper, about 30 minutes. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Cut dough using a small (2- to 3-inch) fluted round cookie cutter and return to the freezer for 15 minutes to set. Transfer frozen cookies to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake until crisp and lightly, evenly colored (but not brown), about 10 minutes.
Busy baker's tips: Store baked cookies in an airtight container for up to 10 days. The dough can be frozen, between sheets of waxed paper and well-wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to 2 weeks. Baked cookies can be wrapped in plastic wrap then aluminum foil and frozen for up to 1 month.
Cook's note: Don't be intimidated by how many cookies this recipe makes. This dough freezes well, and you can roll out far in advance -- so when you need cookies, you can cut and bake as needed, which is a great holiday time saver.

Good Deals!

I have Christmas and birthday shopping on the brain lately, so I thought I'd pass along some of my shopping finds to you. I'm proud to tell you that not only is almost all of my Christmas and December birthday shopping done, almost everything is wrapped!! With ribbon! I have to brag because it's just about the only part of life where I'm ahead of the game, so it feels like a huge victory.

Do you have hardwood floors, dust, and a love of slippers? Well these little babies just might be the perfect give for you! Check out the Slipper Genie at a fun shopping website called Delight.com

Or how about a full set of Oneida flatware for only $9?!! Or maybe a 10-piece set of KitchenAid pots and pans (normally $300) for only $90, including shipping?! Those little gems come from a new website I just learned about called dealnews.com. If you visit, be sure to scroll past all the electronics listed at the top to get to the home goods.

I didn't actually buy anyone's birthday or Christmas presents at these websites because I just learned about them, but I thought you all would want to know! Happy weekend!

Private Pilates

As part of my ongoing work to get my back in order and get me out of pain, my PT prescribed me to go to a private pilates session this week. The pilates instructor I went to was also a PT, so I felt completely confident in the session. And all I can say is... Wow! Wow! Real pilates is nothing like the DVDs that they sell, which I actually own! Nothing.

I immediately trusted my instructor because she was in a conversation with another instructor talking about how she's going to get a boob job once she's done having babies. Why does that make me trust her? Well, there are SO many militant liberals in the town we live in that it was wonderfully refreshing to meet someone who is totally dedicated to the health of her body... but also a normal woman like the rest of us who wants to change things about herself.

Anyway. We spent a full half hour on a completely in depth postural analysis - feet, knees, rib cage, pelvis, shoulders, neck, head, spine, etc. She looks at every part from every angle. It feels a little jarring at first because you're hearing all the things that are wrong with you - your feet pronate in (roll inwards), your knees do something I can't recall, your pelvis tips forward to arch your lower back (typical gymnast pose), your head juts forward and to the left, your left shoulder is overdeveloped, etc.

But it's good to know how in depth the process is and how dedicated they are to making your health improve. Normally we would have spent the next half hour on basic pilates muscle identifications and exercises, but because I'm in physical therapy she went through my 6 nightly exercises and taught me how I should really be doing them. Again... WOW. Basically, the way I was doing them would build me muscle, but not the right kind of muscle so there were a lot of small but radical adjustments.

The basic theory behind pilates, if you don't know, is to build up the stabilizer muscles deep within your body. The smaller muscles that surround your spine, pelvis, etc. The "power muscles" that we typically build by going to the gym or doing a regular ab workout, don't provide stability and strength where I need it most, which is my inner spine. (Interesting anecdote: she said that the "six pack" muscles that we all crave, while beautiful, are the least effective of the stomach muscles and only serve to help you bend forward)

But back to the tiny muscles - you should try to find those!! She told me I had excellent body awareness, meaning that I'm talented at locating muscles and making them do what I'm supposed to, and yet it still seemed nearly impossible! How about this - while laying on your back, try to find the "saran wrap" muscle that wraps around your body. Do this by pretending to bring your two hip bones toward each other, but don't move your spine, tense your butt etc. It was actually kind of funny because I just got to the point where I would think in my mind about moving my hip bones together and then she would say "yes! that's it!". Huh??

I feel like my nightly exercises are going to take about twice as long now because they're so detailed and so specific, but it's great to know that I'm doing them properly. From here I have 5 more private sessions with the pilates instructor. It's pricey, but at this point I'm completely dedicated to doing what I need to do to get better. And not just getting to the point of feeling less pain, but truly and deeply better. After I'm done with my private sessions she's pretty sure that I'll be able to take group classes, which are obviously much more affordable. I'll let you know how it goes!

A weekend at home

B and I had a lovely weekend here in central New York. As I said before, it was one of our first weekends home in quite a while. And I know I complain about being gone all the time, but you just can't imagine how much your life falls apart when you're never around on the weekends. Houses don't get cleaned, groceries don't get bought, bills get overlooked, wedding planning falls behind, etc. But I'm very hopeful as I look to the coming months, because I don't see too many weekends where we're away.

Friday night we went out for a few drinks to celebrate Ithaca Chick's 23rd birthday. Then on Saturday we met my mom for coffee and all of us went to Jaynes Ave house. We haven't seen them in so long, it was great to catch up. And we had a Try This! recipe for dinner! If you're a subscriber to the email you'll get to read about our wonderful dinner that we tried and see a lovely picture. In the meantime, here is sweet baby S opening her 1st birthday present from us - a new alphabet book by Steve Martin that I heard all about on NPR, The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z!

Today I had a huge success in the progress of my back. As you know, I've been in physical therapy for about 4 weeks now to help stabilize my spine and my back. I've been doing exercises at home most nights and having appointments one to two times a week. And it must be working because I was able to make a major grocery shopping trip today without leaving Wegmans in tears. First time in years I've been able to do that!! As I said, we haven't been around much, so there haven't been many huge grocery trips. But I knew that this would be a big test of my progress. And honestly, I wasn't even expecting that much, just to be able to get through it better than before, so I was hugely surprised when we left and I was only in mild pain (without any painkillers). This is huge!!! I did my exercises immediately before leaving the house so my muscles would be tightened up and ready to go and it worked. Woo Hoo! I still have an extremely long way to go and am not cleared for any unsupervised gym activity at all, but this first step was a big one.

In other news, B made homemade sauce today and we got a little cleaning done. I also got to chat with my dear Feather Nester, who is (in theory) within days of delivering!! She and my mom (who flies into AZ on Friday for the birth of the baby) are in a mental tug of war with tiny baby. Feather Nester is sending strong "please get your booty in gear and say hi to your mother" signals, while my mom is sending "stay exactly where you are young lady until Auntie M can come assist in your birth!" signals. But like I said to both of them, the tiny one is the boss and no amount of wishing on either end is going to make her do anything she doesn't want to! Great planning for her future :)

Hypermobility Syndrome

In the ongoing process of doctors, referrals, x-rays, etc. to get my chronic back pain diagnosed and fixed, I went to the physical therapist today and had the best health care experience I've ever had. He took his time, spent an hour with me, and made a diagnosis that totally made sense to me and just felt right. I left feeling completely high on life knowing that someone knew what was wrong and how to make it better. Let me show you in pictures! B is an example of someone who does not have hypermobility syndrome:

Notice the humped, barely 90 degree angle of his back and the inability to palm the floor.

Now look at someone who does:

Notice the flat back and the palms on the floor.

So without boring you with all of the details that I'm too tired to write about anyway, basically my joints and ligaments are looser than they should be, which causes them to move around and cause pain. It's something that you're born with, but because I grew up as a gymnast and a dancer, I had great muscles that kept my wiggly spinal joints in place. Now that I'm an adult with a desk job, my muscles aren't good enough to keep everything together. In fact, it's an extremely common injury for former gymnasts. According to the article I found online, it's what makes you a good gymnast. So when the physical therapist placed his hands on my hips and pushed together, it instantly relieved my pain. But now I have to get my spinal and stomach muscles strong enough so they can do that on their own so he doesn't have to follow me around everywhere, squeezing my hips together. Woo Hoo!!! I know what's wrong!! And I can actually do something about it! Speaking of which, I'm falling asleep as I write this, so I need to go do my nightly exercises.

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Update:
More recent posts on this topic here and here.

30

Weeeellllll, it's official! Yes, I am now 30. I've been excited to turn 30 for quit some time now, so this is in no way traumatic. Life in your 20s is just so nuts and everything is falling into place, and coming together and B and I had a particularly eventful 20s decade, so that definitely made this transition easier. Plus, being in the middle of your engagement year is a wonderful was to turn 30 - new decade, new marriage.

This morning, B spent the better part of 4 hours putting the new wine cabinet together. I won't even get into it here, but there were some design flaws that made it a nightmare. And of course, I was begging him to just call the 800 number and demand that they send us a new one, but a brief four hours later, all was fixed. And now.... it's STUNNING!! It's definitely my most favorite piece of furniture right now! Not that one usually picks favorites with something as seemingly mundane as furniture, but it's just so pretty!!


After the day of wine cabinet engineering, we went on a lovely picnic at one of our favorite small waterfalls. By the time we got there, the sky looked a little... suspicious. So we ate kind of quickly and made little glances at the sky, but after a few minutes, Mother Nature won and the sky opened up. We started manically throwing cheese and hummus and bread and olives into the backpack and tried to take shelter under the trees to ride out the storm. But I'm happy to say that the storm did indeed pass and we resumed our picnic. It was so nice. The gorges here are just so stunning. Now it's off to the Black & White party that Dino Girl is throwing for me!

The Adventures of Dino Girl & Lame Duck

Who is "Dino Girl?" Dino Girl does not have a blog, but that's her name as far as we're concerned here because that's what her license plate says. Ms. Dino works with me at the museum and loves dinosaurs more than any human you've ever met in your entire life... ever. The house she shares with Film Guy is a shrine of dino paraphernalia. And for the record, unless you've had a friend such as Dino Girl, you could never even imagine the things that come in dinosaur form - Easter baskets, salt and pepper shakers, coat racks, etc.

Anyway, two of Dino Girls' talents are cooking and throwing kick ass parties. B and I were fortunate enough to have an amazing dinner at their house last night, followed by one of the best desserts I've ever had! Red wine poached pears. Half a poached pear covered in the THE yummiest mixture of a red wine reduction sauce that had sugar, cloves, cinnamon, and a whole mess of other wonderful ingredients. YUM!

Also, because my 30th is only a week before the museum gala and it would be too much to take our birthday trip to NYC then, Dino Girl agreed to throw me a wonderful birthday party with a black and white theme. How cute are those invitations?! I told her that if she wasn't careful, I would tag her to make the wedding invitations :)

As for our other, slightly less cool, superhero, Lame Duck... Lame Duck is me and my accompanying frustration. The doctor called me today to tell me that the latest x-rays of my back showed nothing and that all of my vertebrae are firmly in tact. Yes, this is technically good news, I know. But it also means that there is still no discernible reason for my chronic pain. And let me just vent for a moment and say that being in pain every day, not being able to sit on anything hard, not being able to lift or pull anything, sleeping with a pillow between your knees, never being able to go grocery shopping without tearing up at the end, and leaving restaurants because they have inappropriate chairs (all the while they don't know what's wrong) is just so frustrating. Two years worth of frustrating. As much as I dislike taking medicine, I think I would actually be willing to go on a daily medicine if it meant I could increase my quality of life. So anyway... the six weeks of therapy and the subsequent MRI begin in October, so I just need to ride it out until then. Keep your fingers crossed.