Empty Nesting

This Blog is being brought to you by the letter E.
 E for elbow grease.
 E for empty nest.

While Chris is driving back from Washington with our belongings I tried to fill my time with some craft projects. I have so many pinned on my Pinterest boards I went through and found a few that would be useful and inexpensive.

And I am on Day 3 of my right hand feeling totally normal! Not my new normal, but both hands feel exactly the same. It doesn't hurt or tingle:) It feels pain :) And I am totally going to abuse it and make it wield a hammer today. After 2+ weeks of numbness and tingling, I'm going to excercise this damn hand!

This blog will be mostly photos. You can click on any photo to make it larger.

First, I love a glass jar. I have them in the kitchen and the bathroom. A good ol' fashioned Mason jar is my favorite. But since our new apartment has no recycling facilities what-so-ever ( le sigh), and I can't stand to throw recyclable things in the garbage, I had a few glass jars. So I turned them into even cuter jars with the help of a can of spray paint and some candle holders from Savers Thrift Store. Total cost : $4 plus some spray paint.

Spray paint your candle sticks and lids.

Make sure your jars are clean and dry then attack them to the dried bases with hot glue or an epoxy.

Voila! Adorable apothecary style jars full of your chosen candy. We like Jelly Belly's and Almond Roca :)

Second, I love old mercury glass. And there is a very popular pin that uses Krylon Looking Glass Paint to create a faux mercury glass look on any glass surface. Well I went to 7 stores and couldn't find that specific paint. I did however come across a blog where another crafter had the same problem and used a Rustoleum Metallic Silver paint and the effect was the same.  Plus it cost <$5 compared to Krylons $12. The trick is that you spray your item with water and then spray paint over it. You are supposed to use clear class but I tried it on a few kinds of glass and yes, the best results were on clear glass.

I used a green champagne bottle, a jones soda bottle, a mason jar, and three candle holders. The candle holders turned out awesome. The rest, eh.

Gather your glass items, spray bottle of water and spray paint. It takes a few coats to get all the sides of the items. Plus you need to let the water evaporate and paint dry.

The Candle holders turned out pretty awesome.

Close up of the texture

... and with candles

Bottles by themselves

... and arranged with flowers. We can't afford to have fresh flowers all the time and Chris hates fake flowers. So I usually make tissue paper flowers, which he really likes.

Thirdly, I found some awesome chairs at the Thrift Store last week. My Mom ID'd them from the 1970's but I was just impressed by how immaculate they were. The cushions were stained but the wood had no scratches or chips. They are very solid and I knew Chris would like them. He is into antiques and old items like I am.

Today I bought some fabric to re-cover them and busted out a staple gun :) I liked them before but now I love them. They look expensive if you could see them in person. All for $4 worth of fabric. Which makes the total cost of the 2 chairs $35.

The original form of the chair. This is how I found them at Savers. So much potential.

And this is the fabric I chose to recover them in.

Side by side :)

And lastly, our apartment come equiped with an alarm. Or at least the panel of an alarm. It's in the entry way and I hate it. I want an welcoming entry way where we can hang out coats ( theoretically, it's bleeping hot here) and kick off our shoes. I found this great bamboo table at Ross and it has been lonely for a few days. Chris is on his way back with the coat rack for the corner but I wanted some art work for the corner too. In our last place I made some inexpensive DIY fabric panels for our bedroom and decided to do it again here. A $2 frame from the thrift store, some fabric and a staple gun is all you need.

My $2 frame and my chose piece of fabric on the left.  Thicker fabrics work best because you can't see through them.

Make sure you staple very tight so the fabric stays taut.

Voila!

Ugly faux alarm panel...

... ugly faux alarm panel is gone! (Isn't that table cute?)

Spray painted frames from the thrift, $1 each. The pictures are on their way from Washington as well as the coat rack which will go on the right :)

A little detail shot for you.

This apartments is now officially furnished by sweat, thrift stores, and clearance sales.

Laugh-Fro

While I am waiting for a million pictures from today to upload I thought I would share some of the funnier pictures I have taken lately. Some were on Facebook, some I saved specifically for this Blog.

Since we moved into our new apartment we have been shopping around for furniture. While our apartment is being furnished almost exclusively by Savers Thrift Store and the clearance racks at Target, we did go browse some big box furniture stores.

Welcome to Walkers Home Furnishings. Where everything is super gaudy and over the top.

Can you imagine the intensity of seeing your reflections so many ways with this vanity?

Chris wants to be CEO some day, so we took this inspirational picture.  Doesn't he look executive?  ( This is me, typing sarcasm.)

And because you can never get enough creepy in your life, I present you with the creepiest thing I have ever found in a thrift store. For $14.99 it could be yours! ( Because you know I didn't buy it) This "artwork" raises so many questions. Like did he have live models or did he (or she) draw this gem from memory? Oh and did I mention this beauty is dated 1982? Someone has been carting this around for 30 years. They must have had very fond memories of tying models to a post or being tied to a post.

Honestly, with the jacket and her helpless face I thought it was a picture of Edward and Bella at first.

And the final funny photo...

As you know, I have curly hair. It doesn't curl as much as normal here because it is dry in the desert and the water has so much garbage in it. Well when we moved into the apartment we didn't have a shower curtain for the first few days. We had bought the rod but Chris hadn't installed it yet. So we went to the gym to shower as we now live 4 blocks from our gym.

One day I got out of the shower only to discover that I had forgot a comb, or brush, or anything to tame the Kracken that lives on my head. I tried to wrap it in the towel but that just made it worse. The towel was so big it kept falling off my head  and tugging on the hair. So I just walked out with my raging fro and in the 10 minutes it took me to get home my hair dried completely.

This is why it takes me so long to do my hair in the morning.

I had to take a picture, it was too damn funny. And until now only two people have seen this.

You're welcome.

Quandary

Tonight I met a fellow MS'er who lives in Las Vegas too. I had lots of questions about neurologists and medications etc. and everything was going very well. We talked for about an hour and a half and we were totally off topic and making fun of Portland when she said this:

MS'er: Oh by the way I'm a racist. Not just a little. I'm a racist. Your husband isn't Asian is he?
Me: Uhhh.. no
MS'er: Is he black?
Me: Uhh.. no. He's a big white guy.
MS'er: Oh okay good.

...and continues on with her story. Which I totally don't remember because I was stunned. Who says that so casually? Racists, I guess. I'm not sure how if I'm more shocked that this happened or that I didn't respond. I was so stunned. I know that her opinion is her opinion, and she is entitled to it even if she is wrong. But I was so worried about offending her if I said " You know this isn't going to work out. We cannot be friends. I don't support your opinions." That I held my tongue and stuck around.

Clearly I will not be calling her again. And if she calls me, I'm going tell her we can't be friends. But why am I so worried about offending her. Because I still am. Ugh.

I've never been in this situation before and it is so weird. I'm friends with people who have very different political views than I do and the difference has never been a friendship barrier. But racism? That's a dealbreaker.

Home Is Wherever I'm With You

As you have read, the last 10 days have been a bit crazy. Well the last blog was about the sad stuff, now it time for the happy.

Chris and I moved out. We have our own place again :)

First, I have to congratulate Sam and Alex Conte. We had a wonderful time with you over your Vegas wedding weekend. I will never forget Elvis playing Crazy Train at your wedding. Ever.

You inspired us to get this ball rolling. After your wedding on Sunday we realized we had nothing left to look forward to except my 30th birthday. We were planning a little staycation at the Mandalay Bay and when we got home on Sunday we planned on booking the room for the weekend of my birthday. Well then we started talking about why I wanted to stay there. And the truth is, I just wanted a little vacation from my life. I wanted to pretend I was in a tropical paradise somewhere and not have to sleep on someone else's floor in a tiny little room for my big 3-0. Chris and I were amounting the same frustration level about our living situation and decided we are being too cautious. We need to just jump in. So we decided that we were moving out May 1st.

Because 6 week plans are about as spontaneous as we get when money is involved. LOL

Monday morning I went to tour the two places we've had our eyes on. We knew we wanted to live in the Summerlin area of Las Vegas. We chose the two apartment communities based on price in the area we wanted to live. I loved the first one. It has three pools and beautiful grounds but it really lacked in closet space. We don't own anything anymore but it still seemed like not much room to grow.

On the other end of the street is Summerlin Entrada. Sounds fancy right? Not so much. I only has one pool and basic landscaping but the one bedrooms have 4 big closets, including a walk-in in the master. Also the rent was $80 less then the first place, putting it below our budget. And they had great move in promotions available that would make moving in immediately cost $300.

Sold.

On Tuesday Chris went to tour the properties and turn in applications. He agreed with me that Entrada was the better apartment and better price. We would rather save our $80 for our air-conditioning bill than better landscaping.We agreed that we should just do it. We are always going to make some excuses so lets just jump in right now.  Applications were turned in and approved that day. We chose to sign the forms together and pick up our keys on Friday.

Wednesday morning Chris wakes up and gets ready for work. And our car is gone. Stolen or towed, we don't know yet. 

It was towed. We were parked in an illegal parking space, which we had been parking in for weeks, inside our gated community. In fact we only found out it wasn't a parking space on Sunday when we got home from Alex's wedding. Sharon said we may get towed so Chris went to move the car. On Wednesday morning, when he got back from his hospital rounds at 1 am, there wasn't any street parking left. So he parked in the spot because it was only going to be a few hours, he had to leave for work again at 730 am.

So we found where it was impounded and went to get it. Chris had to take the morning off of work and honestly, we couldn't stop cracking up about the situation.  I mean, we were moving out in 2 days for pete's sake! $200 and a trip to a scary tow yard on the outskirts of town later, we had the car back.

So Chris headed to work and I headed back to the house. Then my phone rang. It was saying that since he already had the morning off work, we should just go sign the papers today. He was really frustrated with the HOA right then and didn't want to go back.

He didn't have to tell me twice!

We signed our papers and picked up the keys that day. I had went shopping in anticipation that we were moving soon all ready but there is a lot of small things you take for granted.

Like garbage cans.

Hangers.

Forks.

So here we are. Indoor camping as we like to call it. We have 2 forks, 2 plates, 1 pot and 1 pan, some TP, a coffee pot, and a can opener.

And it's the happiest we have been in a long time.

We are on the ground floor. It stays cooler and is easier to walk to if I have a leg issue.

The evolution of the bathroom. ( above)

The evolution of the dining room. (below)

 I bought a cute tablecloth at the thrift store so we could have a picnic inside :) Plus its new carpet and we didn't want to spill since we have to eat on the floor for a few weeks.

The almost end result. Thanks to some awesome clearance deals at Target I scored the rug and the art work for $60.  Chris is headed back to Kitsap this week to bring my car and some more of our stuff down so we will have a table then. But no chairs :( I'm on the hunt for chairs while he is gone.

And that is pretty much it! We have a clothes drying rack in our living room. Our mattress is on the floor on the bedroom and we had to buy extra hangers because we don't have a dresser so everything has to be hung up. But it won't be this way for long. We've been shopping around for furniture already we are just playing it a bit close to the chest and looking for the best deals or thrifted items. And frankly, after 16 months of coexisting in one small bedroom, the extra space is really nice. We are in no hurry to fill it.

10 Days Late...

...and my life is complicated.

...Sorry it has been so long between blogposts but it has been a whirlwind down here.

So first things first. I had my Nerve Conduction Study and EMG test. I have to say, I was worried about the wrong test. I was afraid of the EMG part of the exam because I thought they were going to stick me all over with needles. The nerve test came first and that was the icky part. They did the exam on my arms and legs. They connected me a machine with small jumper cables. No joke. The clips are red, green, and black. And then your technician uses a small taser like machine to shock you in various places and it registers on the machine like seismic waves. If you Google Image Search you will find lots of pictures. My technician wouldn't let me take any.

At first it was just little shocks. No biggie. Then she had to do my legs and she folded my knee around the taser device and it was awful. And we had to do it several times because she accused me of using lotion on my legs. I was specifically told not to use any products and I hadn't since Friday. It was Tuesday when I had the test.( I think this speaks volumes about the moisturizing abilities of Aveda products. Because what she was picking up was whatever they massaged by legs with during my pedicure on Friday.)

And after a lengthy wait, Dr. Germin came in. He started talking to me and while he was delivering the news I thought he was embracing me. Then I noticed he was sticking me with needles and I didn't notice! Sneaky Dr. Germin. The needle test was nothing to worry about at all. But he had good news, the results of my earlier test are normal. And the MRI of my C-Spine showed no evidence of lesions. Oh I was so excited! And then he asked me if I was conservative or aggressive.

Me: Depends on the subject.
Dr. Germin: The subject is you.
Me: Depends on the situation.
Dr. Germin: You are the situation.

Well crap. I told him that I am more conservative when it comes to my health. He said I should be more aggressive. He sent me home with some packages from the drug companies about my MS therapy options. I have RRMS ( Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis) and that is the earliest stage of the disease. At this stage, all therapies available to me are injections. Oral medications come later.

Chris and I spent an hour going over the packages last night. He, like Dr. Germin, wants me to be more aggressive about my treatment. I guess I don't feel the need to jump right in when it's so early in the game. And after hours on internet research this morning I'm still not sure. It's like picking your poison. You have to chooose which side effects you want to live with.

The Copaxone does not offer the flu like symptoms of other drugs. It does come with a high risk of skin damage at the injection sites. Far higher then other drugs and it is for daily use.

The Betaseron is an every other day injection that is not recommended for people who work full time because it can cause intense flu like symptoms. It is also not recommened for people who are prone to depression ( that's me). And I have to have my white counts and liver monitored every three months because it can cause damage.

I'm leaning towards the Copaxone but part of me feels like a coward for being scared of the Betaseron.
They both have the same success rate of reducing attack by 1/3 over a course of two years. The Betaseron is stronger and I will eventually be on an interferon so I guess it wouldn't hurt to start now? I don't know. I want to talk to someone who is actually on or has taken one of these drugs but I still don't know anyone else with MS. Everyone I know knows someone else, but they have failed to get them in contact with me. It is very lonely .

Well I registered this morning as a volunteer at Walk MS 2012 in Las Vegas. I will figure out how to link it here later. But I have goal of collecting $100 in donations. I'm excited to do this. I had a blast at the last community event I volunteered at, Kitsap Pride. It may be two months away but I am excited to get to meet some people who have MS also and see people functioning in various stages of the disease. I have called about the MS support groups in the area and haven't recieved any calls back :(
There is only one group on the MS society website so I am assuming that there aren't a lot of MS'ers in the area (probably because of the heat). But I am going to talk to Dr. Germin about it at our follow up appointment.

Oh.. and if you know what song the blog title is from no, I'm not pregnant.

Unwell

Last Monday I finally had my second MRI. I was so scared. I made Chris take the day off just to drive me to the appointment and to work afterwards. I thought that I would be mentally prepared having had one before but I was still very tense. I took a Valium about an hour before the appointment to ease some of the stress. Chris was such a trooper. He said I was hilarious but I really can't remember why. I must have said something medicated and awesome.

Having an MRI at Desert Radiology was a completely different experience than at Harrison. The machine is wider and is in the middle of the room, not inside a wall. I really didn't need to medicate myself at all. I didn't have to wear the c-collar either, the neck cage didn't creep me out... Dare I say it was a pleasant experience?

I just felt like such an Ass for making Chris take the day off to drive me around while I was medicated when I didn't need to be medicated. Who knew?

They said Dr. Germin would have the results in 48 hours so I didn't expect a phone call until Friday. Well I never heard from his office so Monday I called them. And I had this conversation:

Me: Hi, My name is Angelina McKenna and I need to schedule an appointment to get the results of my MRI with Dr. Germin.
Them: Okay, let me get you to appointments.

Repeat this conversation 4 more times.

Because apparantly pressing "1 for appointments" on your phone isn't real.

And neither are the first 4 people you get to talk to.

The 5th lady was kind enough to tell me that Dr. Germin won't see me until I have the EMG test. And while it is in the notes that I cancelled that appointment because I didn't think it was medically necessary, she will have to ask Dr. Germin specifically if she can schedule me. Great.

On Tuesday, I get another phone call.

" We see that you wanted to leave a message for Dr. Germin. What was the message?"

Really lady? I've told 6 other people already! I just want to get my results.

" Yes," I say, " I don't want to have the EMG test unless it is medically necessary. Will you please ask the doctor to look at my MRI results and see if I still NEED to have the test or not."


See somewhere along the line I started hoping that Dr. Germin was going to say...

 " Oh we caught this so early! There aren't any lesions on your spine so we don't need to poke you with 500 needles! Your muscles and nerves are fine. Come back in 5 years or take this medication and come back in 10 years!"

But that isn't what happened.

She called back and said yes, it's necessary.

Well shit.

Most days I sort of forget that I have MS. Then something happens and it's a very clear reminder of what I am in for. Currently, it's a lot of tests. I have had an appointment almost every week since I arrived here. I just want to get to the point where we decide what medication I need to take and start it. I feel like that will signify moving forward with all of this and I am strangely anxious for it. All of this hurry up and wait between appointments is killing me.  It will also allow to me deny that this is really happening too I suppose. Because while all of that was happening, I had strange tingling feelings in my right hand. Still do.  In fact, as I type my right middle finger is numb. And I don't want to tell the docs. I don't want to be poked and prodded anymore. But I guess they will find it for themselves on Tuesday because that I when I have the EMG test and nerve conduction study.

And it means the opposite of what I wanted. It means that there is enought evidence on that spinal MRI that he needs to check the level of nerve damage in my arms, legs, hands, and feet.

I wish I could keep my money and just tell him my right hand is tingling and numb. My middle finger is super numb.  My left leg is the one that goes out and makes me trip and stumble. That I have been shocking myself on everything and there was a couple of days it was so bad it made me tear up. I screamed so loud when I took off the gas cap someone came over to see if I was okay.  But I know that this test will help me understand why that is and what can I expect in the future.

To expect the unexpected right? That's what all the literature says. MS is different for everyone and no two people have symptoms the same way. I've been reading MS patient memoirs and there have been several similarities though. Emotions. How every single day you wake up looking for an external thing to control because you know you have no control over yourself. Even for all the days you are in remission, you are just trying not to get your hopes up because relapse can happen anytime. And it's not "When I relapse again I will lose my eyesight." You never know what it is going to be. Eye conditions are just the most common and the one I am familiar with.

I can tell you that I am a spontaneous crier. Last Friday I was driving out to Dr.Vesna's for an appointment and the Matchbox 20 song Unwell came on the radio. Everyone knows that song but the lyrics really hit me this time. It was the first time I had any kind of emotional connection to the song. It's how I feel about myself right now and I how I feel about my future all at once.

I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell
I know, right now you can't tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see
A different side of me

I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired
I know, right now you don't care
But soon enough you're gonna think of me
And how I used to be

Me
Talking to myself in public
Dodging glances on the train
I know
I know they've all been talking 'bout me
I can hear them whisper
And it makes me think there must be something wrong
With me
Out of all the hours thinking
Somehow
I've lost my mind

I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell
I know, right now you can't tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see
A different side of me
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired
I know right now you don't care
But soon enough you're gonna think of me
And how I used to be

I know right now you are cursing me for making you relate that song to me. So I'm going to snap you out of it the same way the universe ended my pity party. 

Imagine driving through a residential neighborhood with apartments on the left side of the road.
Imagine that you are crying and singing along with Unwell when out of the corner of your eye you see a sign tied to a fence.
And the sign says...

We have big units.

No joke. If you don't believe me, ask Leslie. I texted her about it.

Something Took A Part Of Me

I had seen the ads since I arrived here in January. Korn was playing The Palms in March. Knowing that Chris is not a Korn fan I never mentioned how much I wanted to go. But I drive past The Palms every day when I go to work and the sign was staring me down! On Thursday, Chris told me he was working overnight at the hospital on Friday. So I asked, "Do you mind if I go to the Korn concert tomorrow night without you?". He thought it was a great idea, and so my adventure began.

I saw Korn in concert when I was 19 or 20 years old and it was (and still is) one of the best concerts of my life. I've been talking about it for years. Jonathan Davis has such stage presence and charisma, it's hard not to just rock out when he is singing. This concert was back in the days before Chris. When Leslie and I went to concerts all the time. I texted Leslie and she seriously considered buying a last minute flight to Vegas so she could go to the show also. But last minute tix were around $600 and that is just crazy.

I really thought it was going to be weird going to a concert by myself. But it was only the stuff leading up to the concert that was awkward, like eating dinner at the casino. And I was nervous that the concert wouldn't live up to my memory. I'm 10 years older, they are 10 years older... I even bought a seated ticket because I didn't think I could handle a GA crowd anymore, especially at a metal show by myself.

Well I was so wrong. I'm glad I showed up on time despite not knowing who the opening act was because it was Jonathan Davis himself! LOL. He opened for himself as J-Devil, his DJ alter ego. And I loved it. I could hardly sit still.

But if you notice in the pictures, everyone is just standing around shooting video and snapping pix. Which leads me to two major thoughts...

1.) I'm so sick of people who just film the concerts they go to. Why would you spend that kind of money on a ticket and to stand incredibly still the whole time and watch the replay later? It's ridiculous. Snap a couple of photos, prove you where there and then get down to the business of enjoying yourself. Dance like a crazy person, sing all the lyrics, have a drink, get in a fight, crowd surf etc. A concert should not be a spectator sport. Get crazy people. Loose yourself for a few hours.

2.) Something did take a part of me. Something stole my sweet youth. During the second act (Which sucked. Why did that DJ think it was okay to play pop songs? Everyone ignored him until he play some Deftones and System of a Down. Duh.), I thought a lot about all the fun I had at concerts when I was younger. And how I have probably been to over 100 concerts. This made me think about a lot of other antics. And man, I have some good stories for my neices and nephews when they are older. I am such a different person now but I have really lived a life and I don't regret one stupid mistake of it. My 30's are approaching ( T minus 28 days) and I have accumulated a long list of adventures already. I can't wait to see what my 30's bring!

I didn't take any pics or videos of the actual Korn show. I was so busy jumping and fist pumping and singing really loudly. I think I had more fun by myself than I would have if Chris was there. Mainly because Chris has this habit of thinking I am adorable all the time and when I dance around at concerts and catch Chris staring at me I get self-conscious. I had pure unadulterated spastic dancing and singing to angry angry songs for over 2 hours and it just doesn't get much better then that.

And if Chris has an patient next weekend that leaves me home alone, I'm going to the Flogging Molly concert :) Flogging Molly on St. Patty's day weekend sounds like an event not to be missed. My life needs more celtic punk band rock and I need to practice my jigging.

And for your daily dose of food porn....

Chris and I only one day a week off together. So Sunday morning we headed out to Hash House A Go Go for breakfast. You have probably seen it on the Food Network, that is where we discovered it years ago. It is quite famous for it's large and inventive breakfasts. We have been there before but this time we endevored to try something different because we always get the same things. Plus, our friend who travels a lot is always posting food pix on Facebook and that morning he was in Denver making us HUNGRY with pictures of biscuits and gravy. So we countered with this...

My breakfast is scrambled eggs with bacon mashed potatoes, biscuit, and fried chicken topped with a maple and barbeque sauces. It was delicious. I also had a drink called a Champagne Supernova ( can't resist an Oasis reference) that was basically a mojito made with champagne. Double Yum.

Chris had the sausage gravy pot pie with scrambled eggs and (not pictured) is a vanilla waffle. He couldn't decide and since one meal is more than enough food, ordering two meals isn't a big deal. We were going to have tons of leftovers anyway.

We both ate three meals from these plates.

Which is good because they are like 8,000 calories a piece.



Your parting pic is Chris patiently waiting for me as I sing along with Freebird. He respects my personal rule of never leaving a place while Freebird is playing. So he plays with his phone ( and I suspect thinks of the funeral scene in Elizabethtown)  and lets me have a personal jam session everytime... because this bird you cannot change.