On Notice

So my get-together with CL Friend went well. She is one of those friendly types of people who doesn't make you work hard for conversation. She laughed a lot and asked a lot of questions and we had a great time, sharing Thai Lettuce Wraps and finishing off with cheesecake. This week she is out of town for work and I have my final to worry about but after that we both plan to get together again.

My surgeon opened his office today (on a Saturday morning) to see me. He is the nicest guy ever.

Apparently I don't have a dry socket, and he's not sure why I'm in such terrible pain. He thinks I just have to get through it and when I see him again Monday I will be better. He gave me more drugs.

Good God, when will it end?

Now I get to spend my weekend in bed, studying and sleeping. Hmm. Doesn't sound so bad, aside from the horrific pain :)

Worst... pain... of... life...

Must... be... dry socket...

I can't stop biting my nails even though it hurts my teeth to do so. Is this some kind of disorder?

Looking forward to after work noshing with CL Friend. I need some relaxing girl time because I've had a hellish week, what with having something ripped from my gums by the roots and all.

I can see a light at the end of the tunnel with my Shakespeare class but I am going to have to haul ass this weekend and next week. I need to do well on that final *winces*

I just went out on my lunch break and bought myself a pretty little brown leather journal for my poetry, just because.

Where is Bumpkin?

I had the problematic wisdom tooth taken out yesterday. I was so frightened about it, and it turned out to be nothing at all. It didn't even hurt! Except for the injection, and that was so minor.

The thing that is bugging me is the afterwards pain. The bleeding yesterday was both disgusting and stressful but that has stopped now. Now I am just rinsing with an antibiotic that makes all my food taste bad. Eh, I can live with that for a week.

I decided that I needed some new girlfriends so I went on Craigslist and solicited some. I have been talking with one woman - I guess I will call her CL Friend - who is totally cool. We do the same kind of work and her relationship reminds me of mine (though she's married) and I think we will get along great. We are meeting for drinks and appetizers after work Friday. (My drink will have to be a Diet Coke because I am still hopped up on Vicodin.)

I am just so happy. I know I am an emotional person with mood swings and such but in my life, right now, I am just so happy. I lay in bed and think that before I go to sleep. Life is just so good. (We'll see how happy I am when I go home for a stressful Thanksgiving, but that's another story ;)

Oh, I also joined a group of people who meet for lunches in different restaurants. I love eating out and don't know all that many places in my somewhat-still-new city so I joined. I went to one on Tuesday and the people were cool and the food was good. Fun!

Happy Monday

Today we enter the Goddess Birth Sign of Venus. She teaches us about love in all its form: self-love, love for others, and love for mother earth and all her creatures.

SUGGESTED MANTRA: SELF-LOVE
The Roman goddess born of heaven and sea, revered for her gifts of fertility, sensuality and above all, love.

I walk in beauty

--

Every time I see students coming from class (I live on a college campus), I get jealous. Every time I hear about someone's experiences in their lit classes or women's studies classes, I nearly freak.

I've always felt a strong tie with academia. Ever since I started college I was in love. Nowadays, college is the afterthought. My lit classes are more of a nuisance at night when I'm tired from work than something I enjoy. I don't have classmates and great discussions and professors to give me feedback on my papers, and God, I miss it!

I work in the marketing world but it's not my passion. Publishing gets closer - writing, editing, especially about issues that matter to me. But I have always walked around saying, "I'm going to be a professor, I'm going to get my Ph.D., I'm going to be an academic rockstar," and I totally forgot about it in the past year or so.

I am very close to finishing my B.A. and I really need to think about grad school because it's important to me. Like, really important.

--

So I need costume ideas for Halloween. Last year everyone dressed up at the office and we had a party - there was William Wallace in a kilt with blue and white paint on his face, a whoopee cushion, a pirate... you get the idea. I want to do something fun but something I can design myself (and not pay for a costume, if I can help it). Suggestions? :)

Happy Anniversary to Meee

Google has one-upped Microsoft by providing presentation software as part of its Google Docs program. That's right, folks: if you have a Google account (Gmail or otherwise) then you don't need to go scouting out bootleg versions of MS Office (PowerPoint) anymore. Is there anything these guys can't do? I'm waiting for the day when they go food shopping for me, and I'm sure it's not far off.

Today is my one-year anniversary with my company. It is also, coincidentally, Cake Day. I will be celebrated, revered, highly honored amongst my peers! (Well, me and the VP who has a birthday, but really, I'm sure the glory will be evenly distributed.) Mmmmm ... cake.

Goddess of the week: CORDELIA

She may be known as the goddess of summer flowers, the Queen of May and a graceful fairy spirit, but Cordelia is no sissy - she teaches you to stand your ground in order for good things to come your way.

I know what is best for me

I feel like I’m in the rainforest sometimes. My office is in a really pretty area and the view from the large windows is amazing, especially when exotic-looking birds come around. I just heard a tap on the window and wondered who could be dangling at the 2nd floor of an office building. I turned and saw that a bird had tapped its beak. “Oh … hello.”

Five Strengths

Musing Woman tagged me for a meme. I have to name five of my strengths as a writer/artist. For some reason we hate pointing out positive things about ourselves. And when I say "we," I mean "me," but here goes.

1. I have a wealth of material and resources; my best stuff is based on people I know and things I've been through.
   
2. I have the ability to pack a lot of feeling and description into relatively small space. I've written some pieces that were only a few paragraphs long but got incredible feedback, that readers felt like they really knew the characters and such.
   
3. Poetry comes easy to me. It's not always good - I would say 50% of my poems are crap and 50% are good, but the good ones (like the bad) just come to me. I can sit down and write a poem I'm really proud of in five minutes, and rarely need to edit more than a word here and there.
   
4. I am a very sentimental writer. My work has made people cry (mainly things I write about a person will make that person cry).
   
5. I can come up with really great imagery. I wish I could do it more often - I feel like you can read several pages and then be struck by this one great sentence, and I wish I could sprinkle them more liberally throughout. But I appreciate that I get them at all.

I tag my writer friends: Wolverine, Andi

I'm back. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a decent meme, so it's just me. (I got fed up when a "Which Sex and the City character are you?" quiz told me I'm Charlotte. I am so Miranda.)

Anyway, feeling much better. Not afraid of jinxing it because it is clearly not in my mind. Thank you Goddess, oh, thank you. I kiss your feet.

Boyfriend and I went out to get some nice food for dinner. We went to Whole Foods and I got a pecan feta salad with tofu thrown in, a parmesan ciabata roll and a serving (get real, it's like 3 servings, but whatever) of chocolate cream pie.

(Didn't that just make you drool?)

We also got the last two DVDs of Rome. Once this is over, I don't know what I'll do. I hope the next series we get into captivates me as much. And maybe I'll stop having such violent dreams.

I have been working from home practically all week because I am in horrible, agonizing pain. The dentist promised me that today I would feel better, though I've been on anti-b's since Tuesday. If not, he will conclude that I am some kind of mutant and will change them.

I actually do feel a little better, though I am frightened to say so and jinx it. I can safely say that I have never been through anything as physically painful as this has been.

Can't wait for that childbirth! ;)

I'm listening to dc Talk and it's a real blast from the past. You know how music can bring you back to other places in your life? I feel 15 again, and it's crazy...

Man, I miss believing in something.

Anyway, what else? Gave up most of my freelancing gigs for one big one that I'm excited about. Have taken a break from genealogy research, but found a ton of great stuff before I did. Have not been counting calories but am probably losing weight from not eating. Jazzercise DVD is overdue at the library and those bastards charge $1 a day.

I will prob be back with a meme because I'm so darn bored.

A Summer to Remember

Well, well, well. I had a throat infection in July, another throat infection in August, and an emergency trip to the dentist today confirmed that I have a gum infection. On antibiotics for three months straight. It's so not fair!

Oh, and I'm in excruciating pain. More like agony.

If I lived alone, I probably would have crawled into a closet and died by now. They wouldn't have found me until they wanted their next rent check. Yes, I blog mushy stuff about Boyfriend a lot and it makes you all sick but I-don't-care-because-he-is-amazing-and-it's-my-damn-blog. I have put this man through three months of practically waiting on me hand and foot while I lay around moaning or wake him up in the middle of the night because "it hurts."

As a feminist and a purported man-hater, I think it's important that I give a shout-out to the best man in the world for being the way he is.

One of the suggested affirmations from the inner goddess newsletter in my inbox this morning:

My smile comes easily.

I think that's a really good one, especially because I'm a super-bitch.

Well, not really, but sometimes I get agitated. I had a bit of a rough morning today because my wisdom tooth is impacted or whatever and I'm in great pain. Couple that with the fact that my ring didn't fit and I was totally pissed.

You see, over the weekend Boyfriend and I went to the local Celtic store that I have been wanting to check out for a long time. I have wanted a piece of Celtic jewelry for years now. We found a beautiful silver ring - I will take a picture of it the next time it fits on my fat finger - and he bought it for me. I just love it. This was Saturday, and this morning it doesn't fit. Why, oh why?

I think maybe because I had just gotten out of the shower. You know how clothes don't go on as easily right after you bathe?

I hope that's it. I love that frigging ring.

This weekend was great in terms of eating well and exercising. I played catch (softball), did jazzercise tapes and went for long, arduous walks that made me super sweaty. Woot, baby.

*Image from Thalia Took, an amazing artist. Check her out. I'm a big fan.

*Cross-posted at the Feminist Pulse

Huge pet peeve: women who wear inappropriate clothing to the office.

Why does this make me so mad? I am certainly not jealous. It just annoys me when a teenager bounces around with cleavage hanging out in a place of business. Gloria Steinem, Andrea Dworkin... work in vain?

Yes, "it's their choice, that's what feminism is all about"... blah blah blah.

Everyone's feminism is different, and mine is about being taken seriously in the office, not men talking to my chest. I accomplish this by dressing like a professional.

I am working on a really tedious project that requires quite a bit of time but not a whole lot of brain power. I was thinking about Rome and thought I would share my thoughts.

I think it was a damn good series. Boyfriend and I watched all of season one, finishing with the finale over the long weekend. The finale was difficult because some things I had been dreading came to pass, and I know that the next season will be profoundly impacted by these events. That shows you it's a good show; I'm so emotionally invested. We rented discs 1 and 2 of the second and final season so that will be coming up soon! :)

(Why do they have to put seasons on like 6-8 different DVDs? Money-grubbing bastards. How can you put two episodes on one disc and sell it on its own?)

Day 24

Last night was a dieting disaster. Boyfriend and I went to an Italian restaurant I really like - cozy and slightly romantic but not too upscale, you could wear jeans if you wanted to - and I lost control. I wore one of my new dresses and we sat outside in the dusk. I had one glass of white wine too many and suddenly I couldn't distinguish feelings of fullness. Theoretically, it wasn't that bad... we didn't even have an entree, just a couple of appetizers and dessert. But along with that bread basket and olive oil it was a caloric nightmare. I swayed happily and sang along with the middle-aged band who kept playing Beatles songs. I had a great time but when I got home I fell asleep immediately at around 9 PM.

Today I am extremely motivated to undo the horrible damage I have done.

I succumbed and put half and half in my coffee. I don't care; I have been doing damn well. Over the weekend I made a pasta and vegetable dish (from a healthy cookbook) that was yummy and really low-cal. Boyfriend and I went swimming and played ball in the fields and such. Today is aerobics class numero uno but I may have to skip because my damn mattress hurt my back. Was in bed practically all day yesterday!

Girlistic Magazine (the publication in conjunction with the Feminist Pulse, whom I blog for) has a new issue out, and the theme is "Feminism and Food." I enjoyed it A LOT. Head over there if you're so inclined.