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Friday, December 21, 2012

The Apoxalypse: Or, How I Got a Week Off Without Even Trying

Soooo... I thought I would blog today, and as it turns out I typed this post a *while* back (*cough*October*cough) and apparently forgot to hit publish.  *facepalm*  Story of my life.  Also, since today is apparently the End of the World, I thought my post about the Apoxalypse would be appropriate.  Enjoy. 
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Ah the chicken pox.  Probably the most common childhood disease ever, and one that most everyone gets by the time they're 7.  Except me.  Because I like to be different.

I very clearly and very distinctly a visit with my pediatrician when I was very young.  My mother was talking to him about the chicken pox and how I had be exposed to not one, but three, different kids with them and hadn't gotten them.  Not one spot.  He told my mother and I that some people, like myself, are immune to them, and in addition I would probably never have cold sores or the like either.  I went on to have a happy, pox and cold sore-free childhood, which continued well into my (supposedly) adult years.  Until last Thursday.

I woke up feeling...off.  I was achey, woozy, and pretty certain I had a fever.  "Ah, the flu," I thought, "great..."  And so, I called in sick.  Friday, same thing, only I had what I thought was a couple little bug bites that were slightly itchy.  Saturday, I woke up, went in to take a shower, looked at myself and said, "Oh. my. God." and then I swore for a little bit.  I was covered in tiny, red, awful-looking spots from head to toe.  Seriously?  I'm 28, I thought I had safely made it past the point where I wouldn't have this problem.  That's what happens when you get too sassy I suppose.  So I emailed my boss, talked to my doctor, and was officially quarantined to the house until all my spots fall off.

I was mad about it for a little while, but it's really so ridiculous it's hard to be mad for too long. At the end of the first day I had decided in the spirit of Halloween I would dub my disease the apoxalypse, settle in, and just try to make the most of my time at home.

So far the best use of my time has been playing Left 4 Dead 2 with some friends of mine, because, as they so nicely put it, "You can shoot the Infected while you become one.  It's all very poetic."  I have such good friends.

I still haven't had any cold sores (knock on wood), and I hope to keep it that way.  But the lesson learned here is never say never.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

An Adventure in Sizing

It occurs to me that I’m not really sure how to wear clothes anymore.  Now, part of this is due to the ever-changing world of “fashion”…but the other part is definitely due to being overweight most all my life.  I, like most pudgy people in the world, always dressed bigger than I was.  Baggy clothes “hid” the fat, and after all, if I hid my real shape, you’d never know if the fluff around me was a McDonald’s-induced mid-section or just a large sweatshirt.  At least that was the theory.  I realize now that I most likely wasn’t fooling anyone but myself, but I digress.  Having perfected this method of clothing my body over many years, now, as an adult who is (slowly) becoming more fit, it occurs to me I don’t know what size I actually am.  It also doesn’t help that clothing companies don’t have any sort of consistency in woman’s sizes, ESPECIALLY with pants.  Good heavens.  I can wear a 12 one place, go somewhere else and I’m an 18.  Or better yet, I flux between 3 sizes IN THE SAME STORE.  Seriously people, this is why women have issues.  Anyway, moving on.
This is very evident to me today, as I bought some Rockstar cords from Old Navy very recently.  They are labeled as “super skinny” and “flattering on every shape!”  That last statement I took as a bit of a challenge.  I of course tried them on in the store and chose the ones that I thought fit best at the time, i.e. the ones that did not squish out my middle like the breakfast pastry the look was named after.  Excited about my purchase (and that I would have a reprieve from wearing so many skirts to work), I wore my new pants the next day.  As soon as I left the house I knew I had a problem.  The pants were too big.  And as big as they started out, they only got bigger as the day wore on, leaving me at the end of the day with a butt so saggy and unattractive that the only rock star I was emulating was possibly Steven Tyler, or maybe Sting.  This would not do.  So I packed up my pants, headed back to the store, and returned all three pairs for a size smaller.  I went to put them on this morning…and there were definitely some aerobics involved.  I had to do the very intricate Dance of the Tight Pants (which I’m quite positive was perfected by Nathan Fillion, Cap’n Tightpants himself*).  This involved the Jumping Up and Down While Hoisting From Waistband, as well as the Knees to the Side Squats while Shaking Rump.  It was quite a production, one that would have brought a tear to anyone’s eye.  Tears of laughter, that is.  After that ordeal with pants only ONE SIZE smaller, it occurred to me that perhaps I’m not actually sure how clothes are supposed to fit me.  Feeling like an orange on toothpicks, I went to work.  I received two compliments on my fancy pants within 20 minutes of leaving the house, so clearly what I deem too small is not seen as such by the rest of the world.  Either that or they’re lying to me, but I find that highly unlikely.  That brought up the question, if other people think I look fine - cute even - then how do I judge what’s the right size?  Should I just assume if I feel my pants are too small they actually fit?  And seriously, whose idea were skinny jeans anyway, and why do they want to torture people?  So here I sit at my desk, wondering how much these will stretch, if they’re worth it, and what on earth I’m actually supposed to look like in clothes.  Pondering this to myself, I texted three of my friends the following:

Let's say you have cute pants.  Said pants stretched out in the first size you bought so you exchanged them for smaller.  You're not convinced you don't look like an orange on toothpicks in the new ones.  Do you keep them knowing they'll stretch a bit, keep them and work out, or return them and mourn your loss?

The answers I got back:
"LMAO!  Keep them for reasons 1 and 2"
"If the orange on toothpick reference is accurate and not an exaggeration, you cut bait and walk away.  Otherwise, give it time grasshopper." (thanks Travis)
"Return them and by MC Hammer pants instead, bring back the early 90s"

I think the general consensus is that I’ll keep them…but probably do a little extra core workout for a while.
*If you have no idea what this means, you should probably go watch some Firefly.  You’re welcome.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Getting up to speed

As always, it's been a while.  As always, a lot has happened since the last time we spoke.  And as always, I silently vow to be a more diligent blogger.
I decided long ago (as is *quite* obvious), that I was only blogging for me and my own purpose, and that the pressure of trying to have consistant updates for my readers was not the reason I started this in the first place.  I started blogging to make friends and connect.  To help myself emote.  And if we're going to be really honest, to help me out of depression.  Though I didn't really know that last one was going to be a side effect, I'm glad it was.  That said, I've had a few moments lately that I've thought "oh, I should blog about that" or "I should write that down somewhere" so perhaps I might get a post or two down before I drop off again.

All that said, here's a brief rundown of where I'm at in my life:
I just passed the year mark at my job...officially the longest job I've had since I was 17.  There was a lot of stress, pain, and tears between the start of my job and where I am now, but everything has leveled out nicely for the most part.  My coworkers and my boss are awesome, the work is not thrilling, but it's fine enough for me to go and not hate my life every time I enter the building.  I'm the most financially stable I've been in YEARS...which is a weird feeling.  I'm still not exactly where I'd like to be with my finances, but I'm getting there and it's a bit of a relief.

The biggest and most recent development though, is my decision to go to grad school.  I started last month in the Media Arts department, and I'm terrified.  Or was.  The terror is slowly becoming excitement as I remember how much I've wanted to do this for so long.  And it's not a little excitement either.  It's the kind of excitement that's bigger than your body and you realize that this, right here, is something amazing.  I will be very clear in saying that I am a looooong way from making any movies just yet, but man am I excited to get there.  The road to get there is slow: two classes a week, still working 40 hours, and paying out of pocket (long story there...I won't bore you).  But all of that will just make it so much more worth while when I'm done.  The two classes I'm currently taking are Digital Technology in the Arts and Principles of Cinematography.  The former is a researched based class, where we as the students go out and compile information on a specified topic, then the following class we all have a discussion about what we found and how it's all relevant to where we are now and how things are progressing.  The latter is at it's heart a film lighting class.  Learning how to set scenes, use cameras, adjust settings to get the right exposure, etc.  Both are a lot of fun.
This last week I actually learned a couple of things about myself because of my classes.  I'm calling them Grad School Epiphanies, and that's one thing I'd kind of like to keep going on here, just because I know there's going to be a lot over the next 3 years.

Grad School Epiphanies:
1) I really love Cubism.
One of our research topics this week was Picasso, who I have known about and seen works of for quite some time.  I mean who hasn't?  For whatever reason though, this time I was just like, "WHOA.  That. is. AWESOME!"  Reading the theorietics behind the art and understanding some of the inspiration made it that much cooler.  I would highly recommend watching "Picasso and Braque go to the Movies."  It's on Netflix.

2) I am not as dumb as I thought.
Which truthfully in and of itself is kind of a dumb thing to say, but sometimes I forget.  The cinematography class I'm taking scared the snot out of me the first couple weeks, I felt like I was way in over my head.  Today though, we assembled set lights, which I am familiar with due to my theatrical background.  And then suddenly, things clicked.  I felt better.  This was something I knew!  And that's all it took to make me say in my mind, "Yeah, I can do this!"

So that's my current life in a nutshell.  I keep pondering making the move to Wordpress, starting a new blog...we'll see how things go.  Anyway, until next time!

Edit: In blogging, I made a bestest best friend.  He has a blog too.  You should go read it.  :)

Saturday, April 21, 2012

*Waves*

Well hello there!
Fancy meeting you here!  I didn't think I'd see anyone around here since I've been gone for sooooo incredibly long.  How am I?  Oh, I'm good.  Remarkably so, actually.  Got the job thing figured out, have a great new roommate, lost (and am losing) quite a bit of weight....just overall doing pretty well for myself these days.  I already have lots of stories from this year, and we're only 4 months in.  Maybe I'll start with those tomorrow.  I'm formulating a lot of ideas for things I'd like to do with this blog, but for right now I just wanted to say hi.  So, "Hi!"