Santa Monica

Well we went California specifically to go to the Sounders match but we decided to make a whole weekend out of it. We stayed in Manhattan Beach and besides the match our plan consisted of two things:

1.) Go lay at the beach like a couple of lazy beach bums.

2.) Visit one of my oldest friends, Jill.

But it was sooo cooold in California over the weekend. Seriously it was in the 60's. I had to buy a sweater because I only packed tanks.

I'm not sure if I'm just used to the desert now or what. But 60's is too cold for me to sunbathe next to the ocean.

But I really wanted to see Santa Monica. It's been on my list of must see romanticized places since I first listened to Everclears album Sparkle and Fade in junior high. Sparkle and Fade is one of my Top 5 of all times and I can sing every word of that album verbatim. And Santa Monica is my favorite Everclear song of all time. ( My second favorite is Glorious off their little known album Welcome to the Drama Club)

(Side note: I have been to Nehalem Oregon too. So if I can get to Summerland California, I will have been to all three places mentioned on the album Sparkle and Fade. This is a 90's teenager dream.)

( Side note 2: I put Sparkle and Fade on to listen to while typing this blog and it's taken me 36 minutes to write this so far because I'm just sitting here singing my little heart out.)

So we headed to Santa Monica for the day. And it was everything I dreamed it would be, except warm.

The Santa Monica Pier

The Beach. (Le Sigh.)

The walkway up to Ocean Avenue.

See that cute blue necklace? It would later be sunburned in to my chest.

My dream of visiting Santa Monica complete!

Well almost... I never got near the sand or the ocean.

But there will definitely be a next time!

We spent the day walking around the 3rd Street Promenade and visiting the little shops. One of the shops had the most beautiful french macaroons. I didn't want to eat one in front of Chris since they are made of pure egg white. "It's not fair for me to eat it in front of you", I said.  To which he replied, " Well it's not fair that you will be in a wheelchair someday." Chris won. I ate three of them.

Then we headed to Venice Beach to see my friend Jill. We had dinner at this place called Larry's right next to the beach and it was fantastic. Jill is just as funny, charming and magnetic as she ever was. She seemed to know everyone at Larry's that night, which she swore was coincidence. Last time Jill and saw each other was about 8 years ago.  A group of us went to a book signing for the now disgraced author James Frey ( author of A Million Little Pieces, the man who duped Oprah) and we went out to dinner with him after the signing. I place all of this on Jill and her friend Bernice's hotness but it was still an incredible night for all of us.

We stayed out all night at a bar in Venice Beach with Jill and her friends. It was a total blast.  I didn't take anymore pictures. I wish I would have taken a photo of the stuffed badger that was on display at this bar. It prompted the line " I wonder when they got that. Honey Badgers didn't exist before YouTube."

We slept until 30 minutes until check out. But we are scheming to go back. As long as we live in Las Vegas and the coast is 5 hours away, we need to make more of a point to visit it. Lake Mead is a sad substitute for an ocean or the Puget Sound. And it smells like wet dogs.

...But on a sad note. I'm really frustrated with my body right now. One of the symptoms of MS is fatigue. And lately it's been really hot out and it's getting to me. I can hardly stay awake some days. I have honestly caught myself putting my head on the counter at work and starting to doze off bag of frosting in hand and everything.  Monday was bad because while I am naturally a carcoleptic, I try to stay awake on long drives and entertain Chris. While I slept 9 hours before we even got on the road I could barely stay awake while we were driving. I kept josteling myself awake and trying to focus on something but soon enough I was blinking myselft awake again because I was thinking myself to sleep. :( When we got home, I crawled right into bed for few hours. I didn't even feel like I had the energy to move. I just layed there. I fell asleep around 11 and woke up at 9:30 in the morning.

This is bad. But I implemented the last phase of the plan this week: getting back into the gym. This will be the subject of a whole other blog because I have been going to the "ladies only" section at the LVAC and frankly, it makes me embarrased to be a girl. I'm going again tonight, hopefully there will be fewer ladies reading 50 Shades of Gray on the treadmill.



Eternal Blue Forever Green!

California 2: Angelina 0

I have to completely give up all my prejudices about California now because after this weekend I am seriously in love. Turns out I really need to be in a marine climate. The desert makes me cranky. While the sunsets are beautiful, everything else is brown, tan, beige and more brown.

My license plates came in just in time! Chris snapped this picture of me just before we hit the road.

The drive to Los Angeles was pretty easy. We made it in just under 5 hours. And it's easy to see why settlers heading west thought they found paradise when they hit California. It's all desert, desert, desert until you hit the San Bernardino mountains and then Bam! It's green and luscious and full of trees.

But we broke our first rule of travel. We stayed in a hotel with doors on the outside!

There are exceptions to everything. Our hotel , Hawthorne Suites, was adorable and the rooms were very nice. No complaints here. The first thing we did too was unpack and call Jared. We waited outside the hotel for him and were immediately accosted by some snaggle toothed wanderer who had the nerve to REACH OVER AND TOUCH MY PURSE! But we are partly to blame as we were sitting in the smoking area (it had a bench) and he was stealing butts out of the ashtray and smoking them.

In case you couldn't tell, Chris really hated my blue hair. Ha Ha.

Then we broke our second travel rule : Only eat at places you couldn't eat at at home. We had lunch at The Cheesecake factory in Redondo Beach. Eating at restaurants is a bit of challenge now that we know Chris is allergic to egg whites. Eggs are snuck into a lot of things. He ordered the lettuce wraps which was a safe choice but he also ordered some buffalo chicken wonton things. I warned him that they probably use an egg wash to seal the wontons but he wasn't having it. His love of all things buffalo chicken clouded his judgement and 30 minutes later he was scratching all over. It was pretty eye opening to see that just an egg wash, even deep-fried, is enough egg white to get a reaction out of him. His arms and lower back got rashy and itchy. It wasn't pretty.

We had a lot of time to kill when we arrived at Home Depot Center too. So Chris and I toured the grounds and he made me go into the Galaxy team shop. They had Donovan and Beckham everything. It's like nobody else plays for the Galaxy! But I will be the first to admit that Home Depot Center is a nice stadium. The grounds are beautifully landscaped too.

The Sounders had a 1:1 draw against Chivas but we still had a fantastic time. It's clearly been a while since we have been in the Brougham End because 20 minutes in I was exhausted! LOL. Can't sing and pogo like I used too. My favorite part was after the game. James Riley, my favorite Sounder who now plays for Chivas, came over to the ECS section. Only a few of us sang the James Riley song but I thought it was great. Clearly Seattle was more then just a place to play soccer for him and he was definitly more then just a soccer player to our community.





2000 Just Doesn't Rhyme

Thank you. Merci. Gracias.

I rolled well over 2000 pageviews today.

I know that in the blogosphere that means nothing. But to me it means everything.

So I have a gift for my faithfull readers: another embarrassing photo.

Well I should be embarrassed but I'm not embarrassed by what I would be embarrassed by. You follow me?

I'm embarrassed that I cannot find the cord to my camera at all. So in order to get this picture I had to take a photograph of my camera with my cell phone.

G-H-E-T-T-O

The one time Chris and I used our actual camera to take pictures instead of our phones and this is what happens. That'll learn us.

Here I am. Looking over the edge of the Hoover Dam unknowing that the wind blew my skirt up. Chris managed to get several photos before alerting me that I was flashing the world. Good thing we were on our way to Lake Mead and I had my swimsuit on.

That's all I have for now. Oh and Chris turned out to be allergic to egg whites! Can you believe it? No more eggs for Chris (or myself). 12 days later and he is still itchy :(

I have to go pack for our trip to Los Angeles now. I'll post about our California adventures next week.

(And if you are future potential employer stumbling across this in your Google search of me and are rethinking hiring me now, just remember that I clearly have no shame and would super fun at office parties.You do want me on your team.)

Victory Over Odors

Scene: The air freshener aisle in Target.

Angelina is reaching for the Febreeze air freshener refill pack. Chris is looking over the aisle.

Angelina: Hawaiian Aloha. Oh good they have a refill pack. I love this scent. It's my favorite.
Chris: Not mine.
Angelina: What? I've been buying it for years.
Chris: ( reaches for the blue package) I know I like this one. It smells great.

He holds it under Angelinas nose. She sniffs.

Angelina : Like laundry. Let's get it.
Chris: Oooh.What's this scent?

He reaches for the hot pink case of artificial dragonfruit scent.
He sniffs.

Chris: How do I smell it?
Angelina: With your nose dingbat.
Chris: Woman. It doesn't smell like anything.
Angelina: Scratch and sniff dingbat.

He scratches. He sniffs.

Chris: No.
Angelina: What about this one?

She reaches over and picks up two light yellow boxes claiming to smell like Thai Orchids.

Chris: Awww... this is the one.
Angelina: Agreed. But they dont' have a refill pack. I would have to buy two seperate dispensers again.
Chris: Well that's dumb.
Angelina: Oh wait. What is that one? The one down low with the stars and stripes.

Chris reads the package.

Chris: It's Victory. It's Victory scented.
Angelina: Does it smell like America?
Chris : ( In the style of Team America: World Police) Fuck yeah!

Chris and Angelina start laughing.

Chris: ( In between laughs) We are retarded.
Angelina: See why I don't have to make up stories on my blog? Too much funny stuff happens to us in real life.
Chris: You better blog about this.

Later... On another aisle at Target....

Angelina: Hey look! Is that America scented aerosol Febreeze? In a 2 pack?
Chris: I think it is.
Angelina: I wonder what "Victory" really smells like? What does America smell like?

She sprays the aerosol in the air and uses her hand to waft it in her direction.

Angelina: Hairspray. America smells like Aqua Net hairspray.
Chris : (Sticks his head in the cloud and starts coughing) Dear God woman, you're right.

Only upon uploading did I notice that it's actually "Victory Over Odors".

And it really does smell like Aqua Net hairspray.

And if you aren't laughing too, I guess you had to be there. It was hilarious at the time.

Angelina Nightingfail

Somedays I think the only Chris says to me more than  I love you is You're funny baby. To which I usually reply That wasn't a joke.

For example:

Chris is unpacking our new mini fridge. I'm sitting on the floor growling at it. I give it the stink eye.

Me (stink-eyeing said mini-fridge): Nemesis
Chris: You're funny baby.
Me: That wasn't a joke. The fridge is representative of my problems. It is my nemesis.
Chris: I hope you blog about this. Because your being really funny.
Me: Nemesis.

Or this

Me: Don't eat my left overs again.
Chris: Whatever.
Me: Seriously. I will punch you in the kidney if you do.
Chris: You're funny baby.

And guess who got punched in the kidney...

So I'm not surprised when Saturday night rolls around and Chris accuses me of putting itching powder in his laundry.

Me: I wouldn't even know where to get itching powder. There is no Archie McPhee in Las Vegas.
Chris: Then why do I look like this! I can't stop itching.
( He takes off his shirt exposing the giant rash underneath)
Me: What the fuck is wrong with you?
Chris: I can't stop itching.
Me: Why?
Chris: Because you are trying to poison me woman!
Me: No. I would take credit for that. And as for itching powder, it's plainly obvious I haven't done laundry in weeks.

So I wake up Sunday morning. It's another 100 degree day here in Vegas. And it's NotaBabyMomma Day for us. We like to celebrate this day by doing something our breeder friends can't. Today was going to be "drink Pina Coladas at the 21+ pool at The Rio".  But alas, Chris's rash has spread...

... to his entire body.

Like the good wife that I am I went to buy him some Benedryl. He is clearly allergic to something. Now to figure out what. Laundry was out of the question ( I'm not that good at being a wife). Plus, he had blisters all over his mouth too. Palette, down the throat, the whole bit.  Considering we had tater tots for dinner ( example number 2 of my bad wifiness) we figured it had to be the beverages. We have a gallon of Market Spice iced tea in the fridge and because Chris recently discovered The Pioneer Woman, we had a gallon of iced coffee too. And Chris had several glasses on Saturday...

...with sweetened condensed milk.

"How can someone be allergic to sweetened condensed milk?" we wondered. Maybe he is allergic to cinnamon? There is a lot of cinnamon in the tea. I dig out all the Benedryl creme I can find in the cabinets as well as some Vagisil Anti Itch wipes. He shakes his head at me. Here is my logic, and itchy vagina is just itchy skin! So it stands to reason that a vagisil wipe would anti-itch is arms too. "No," he shakes his head, " You're funny baby". I really was just trying to help.

He passes out due to the Benedryl. I read beside our pool until I could no longer take the heat . He is still sleeping. His entire epidermis is covered in rash so I did the best thing I could think to do. I put our table cloth in the freezer to chill. (We only have one sheet and he was laying on it)  Wrapping up in the frozen sheet/table cloth was fantastic for him. The Benedryl wasn't helping and since it was 100 degrees, it was nice to snuggle under too. He passes back out and I head back to the pool.

I text him from the pool to see if he is awake yet. He says the Benedryl isn't helping but I convince him that cool pool water might soothe his skin. (Plus I really wanted him to bring me my floaty. And a Margarita. I only got the floaty)

He is getting really concerned. He is afraid to eat anything because we don't know what he is allergic too. With the way his throat is, we are concerned with anaphylatic shock.

I looked at Chris very seriously...

Me: I will make sure you have an airway. As long as I have a bubble tea straw, you will have an airway. I could try to tube you with a straw.
Chris: ( laughing) That's what I am afraid of.
Me: Serious! I'm not going to let you die. If you need air I will attempt to give you a tracheotomy with a bubble tea straw.
Chris: That might actually work. The do have a pointy end.
Me:  I will dip it in hand sanitizer first and then make the cut. I'm a genius. I should write a first aid manual for city girls.
Chris: You're funny baby.
Me: Serious. People would read it.
Chris:  (laughing)I know. That's what I am afraid of!

True love is sincerely offering to tube your husband with a bubble tea straw.

Anyhow, he was still wretchedly itchy an rashy on Monday. He made a doctor's appointment is now on the evil Prednisone. He is still itchy and rashy. We are pretty sure he is allergic to dairy. Isn't that horrifying? I told him a life without cheese is more tragic than a life with MS. He agrees. He says when things get really rough he is going to eat an entire block of gruyere and hopefully overdose.

last night....

Chris: So Dr. Vesna is running my blood against all known food allergies. She said to stay away from everything I ate in the last food days because it could clearly kill me this time. Hopefully the steroids will help this inflammation.
Me: She should have given you an epi pen just in case.
Chris: Probably. I just hope we get the results back soon.
Me: If we had an epi pen and you went into anaphlaxsis, I would totally stab you in the heart with an epi pen.
Chris:  (laughing again) You're so funny.
Me: Seriously! I wouldn't be afraid to save you.
Chris: (still laughing) I'd be better off if you didn't stab me in the heart. That would surely kill me.
Me: Why? That's what they did in Pulp Fiction. I could do it to you.
Chris: ( still laughing) It's just like your injections honey, sub-cutaneous. Do not stab me in the heart.
Me : So you're saying I shouldn't get medical advice from Tarantino movies?
Chris: Yes.
Me: But it worked in the movie.
Chris: ( Shaking his head) No. Just...no.

But we did go to the Greenland Market and buy a bag of bubble tea straws. They are presumably for my smoothies but I think I will keep a few in my purse just in case :)

Songs about Home

So you may have figured out that I went back home this past weekend. My apologies to everyone I didn't get to see but it was a last minute decision and was for a short amount of time.

A few weeks ago I had a total meltdown. I think the last three months really caught up with me. Having my meds arrive in the mail was like fondant on the already frosted cake of shit in front of me. I have been very homesick and I can't find anyway to remedy it. The only person I really know in this town is headed back to Afghanistan at the end of the month and Chris is gone all the time. Even on days when he is supposed to be off he gets called in. I can't count on when I will get to see him so I am left doing things by myself most of the time.

And yes, I know he has had a crazy schedule for years. And I have been quite used to being responsible for my own entertainment for years too. But it's different here. Back home, I would know when to expect Chris so I would make plans with friends or family when he was gone. Here I don't have that. If Chris is at work, I'm sitting at home watching reruns of The Vampire Diaries.

I miss having dinner every week down at Tina's farm with all of the Moo family.
I miss having Farm Kitchen breakfast with my Mom and grandparents every month.
I miss having tea with my grandparents every Sunday.
I miss getting to roll my eyes at Deaira because she never knew what time she had to come to work.
I miss my monthly Seattle date with Julie. I don't have anyone down here that would drink a bottle of wine and watch the Glee movie in 3D with me :)
I miss going antiquing with my Mom.
I miss going to the Grand Theatre and watching indie movies with Christina.
I miss my book club ladies.

I'm going home, back to the place where I belong
Where your love has always been enough for me

I live in a city of millions and I can't call any of them more then an acquaintance.

And I'm surrounded by a million people I still feel all alone
let me go home, I want to go home

So I bought a ticket for a very quick one night trip back to Kitsap County.

Times have changed and times are strange,
here I come but I aint the same,
Mama, I'm coming home

I surprised my grandparents down at Farm Kitchen, went antiquing with my Mom, saw my favorite co-workers from Anthony's, ate Salmon for the first time since I left, had a Sunday BBQ with my grandparents,  and then headed back to the airport. It was a very fast 48 hours but at least I feel like I got to say "See you later" to people I didn't get to see before I left.

One of the things Chris and I talked about during my meltdown was that my situation has been different.  He says people move to new cities all the time. True. And people are diagnosed with illnesses all the time. Also true. So I'm not the only person in these circumstances.

But how many do it at the exact same time? I mean, I was out of the hospital for 3 days when I moved here.  When the snow melted, I was gone with it. I've been going through all of this without any sort of support system except for Chris. And frankly, one person isn't enough to get me through this. Especially when that person is unavailable.

My hearts like an open book, for all of the world to read
sometimes nothing keeps me together at the seams,
I'm on my way, I'm on my way,
home sweet home

I didn't blog much in April. I didn't really have anything nice to say. I had several Dr's appointments and got a second opinion on the lump on my thumb ( aka The Duchess). This doctor says it's a tumor. I think he may be right but he was so dismissive, I'm not letting him operate on me. He didn't even look at the x-ray.  He just rubbed The Duchess and said it's a giant cell tumor, I need surgery, with GENERAL ANESTHESIA. After his decree he said "Do you have any questions?" to which I replied " Yes. Are you even going to look at the x-ray?"

 He spent a total of 4 minutes in the exam room with me.

This is my body and there is no way that man is cutting into it.

Also I broke my molar in half :( And I had to pay $725 to have it fixed.

and we paid over $700 to register our cars  :(

So yeah, not such a good start.

But I feel very refreshed after this weekend. 70 degrees, moist air, and evergreen trees were exactly what my heart needed to get out of this funk.

The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle
And the hills the greenest green, in Seattle
Like a beautiful child, growing up, free an' wild
Full of hopes an' full of fears, full of laughter, full of tears
Full of dreams to last the years, in Seattle
. . . in Seattle!

When it's time to leave your home and your loved ones
It's the hardest thing a boy can ever do
An' you pray that you will find someone warm an' sweet an' kind
But you're not sure what's waiting there for you!

The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle
And the hills the greenest green, in Seattle
Like a beautiful child, growing up, free an' wild
Full of hopes an' full of fears, full of laughter, full of tears
Full of dreams to last the years, in Seattle
. . . in Seattle!

When you find your own true love, you will know it
By her smile, by the look in her eye
Scent of pine trees in the air, never knew a day so fair
It makes you feel so proud that you could cry!

The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle
And the hills the greenest green, in Seattle
Like a beautiful child, growing up, free an' wild
Full of hopes an' full of fears, full of laughter, full of tears
Full of dreams to last the years, in Seattle
. . . in Seattle!

In Seattle . . . in Seattle . . . in Seattle!
"Seattle" by Perry Como