Godzilla Kisses

1. Routine prenatal visit today. I waited in the office lobby entirely too long b/c they had misfiled my chart, but I had a good book to keep me occupied. Everything looks fine. My blood pressure is the lowest it's been in a decade or so.

2. Migraine yesterday. Tylenol is useless. Sigh.

3. *Still* working on cleaning up the very last WisCon programming details.

4. More soon. I got lots to say, but I also have 100+ emails to read just from Friday, almost all WisCon-related, and I've only eaten half a proper lunch today.

1. Gosh, the weather was absolutely lovely all weekend. I hope it keeps up for a while.

2. It was a little too lovely on Saturday. I had to leave the soccer game (Quakes home opener at the Coliseum!) at halftime because my seat was right in the sun, and despite having dressed for the weather, I was overheating. I suppose I could have begged one of the Coliseum staff to reseat me in the shade -- pled my belly, as it were -- but the opportunity arose, and I took it.

3. I did do my outreach during the game, though, when I had a lovely chat with one of those staff members about why soccer was being played here, rather than int he Quakes' own stadium. That would be because the Quakes don't have their own stadium yet.

4. The heat, and the dehydration, and all of that stuff gave me a bit of a migraine on Saturday. And it came back on Sunday. And this morning. It was polite enough to wait until all my social obligations were fulfilled (well, except for Writers With Drinks, which I missed), at least. And, you know, the light sensitivity isn't so bad when it's the middle of the night. Although it's also a pretty reliable clue that you're migranified when you're shielding your eyes from the middle-of-the-night street glare coming in through the windows.

5. My nose seems finally almost completely clear, though. Damn allergies.

6. I finally made that lamb osso bucco, also known as lamb shank segments braised in the oven until they fall apart. G. declared it the best meat I've cooked yet. Following the recipe is a good example of the vagaries of cooking process, too -- the amount of meat I had was half of what the recipe called for. I more or less halved the recipe, then, but this resulted in almost all of the cooking liquid evaporating by the time the meat was done. Which left a delicious slurry of soft vegetables to act as a thick sauce instead. Which was fine. So there you go. Not what the recipe intended, but still kick-ass in the flavor department.

7. My breakfast is frozen.

8. As long as I was home and resting, I took the opportunity to call both sets of grandparents, my mom and dad, and my brother, whose birthday was yesterday (and who has a new puppy). My grandfather more or less said that they'd known about my pregnancy for "months," which, if you think about it, is pretty funny. the implication being, of course, that I had delayed telling them myself. Which is true, but unless time flows differently in the Central Valley, it's been a matter of weeks, not months.

9. I also learned that my cousin the fundie in Southern California beat me to giving that set of grandparents a great-grandkid, as of October last year.

10. And I haven't even gone into Friday.

Dear Headache Diary,

That was no fun, head. It took *three* naps, two Cokes, and eight Excedrin to kill that one. Please don't do that again for a very long time. Thanks.

I can still smell *everything*. Sigh.

Also: maybe skipping the Claritin isn't a good idea right now.

I was fighting a migraine all yesterday afternoon and evening. It never really went away until I went to bed, although I beat it into recession with lots of Coke, Excedrin, and red wine. (Shouldn't red wine and caffeine cancel each other out?)

I think it's the rubber bands. I slept without any on my teeth last night, then switched to a less tight set this morning. So far, so good.

(I should get a tag.)

Dear Headache Diary,

As I noted in passing earlier, I took a lot of Excedrin this weekend, especially when I forgot to take my Claritin. In other words, it felt like most days, I was battling a headache of some sort at some point.

I did not have a full-blown migraine episode at any point in Madison this year, but I did kind of have a minor one on the way home. Holding still, sleeping on the bus and a *lot* of Excedrin seemed to help.

I think it is right clear now that I have allergy-related headaches. Yup. All the other known triggers, however, still apply as well, and it is wise to watch my sleeping and eating habits while away from home.

1.

I may not have been forthcoming to my friends, my loved ones, and my readers here as to how much my shoulder actually hurts sometimes. Sometimes, not all the time. Well, OK, it hurts all the time, really, or at least every day. Sometimes it's just sore and tender when touched, and sometimes it's tight and achy and twingy and horrible.

This weekend (well, Saturday), it was the latter.

So, I bought a heating pad. And I started on some upper body exercises again. And I'm working on going back to regular massage.

For Mother's Day, I called my Mom (whose birthday is today!) and asked her about her history with heating pads. She used to use one all the time, but I couldn't remember why. Turns out it was for a stiff neck. "Try changing your chair," Mom told me. I told her that I'd switched chairs with the job, and switched chairs at home, and it didn't seem to help. Which brings us to our next point.

My shoulder has hurt on and off for almost as long as I have been an adult. It got worse when I went back to work full-time, and I took a short course in physical therapy which helped relieve the pain (and gave me tools for future relief) but not resolve it. There's something weirdly wrong with my body posture such that I carry my left shoulder higher than my right naturally, and while I am trying to retrain myself the results are middling. So some of the reason I don't talk about it all the time is precisely because it's there *all the time*, and it never resolves, so what's the point of mentioning it now?

Anyway, the heating pad did wonders and I hurt hardly at all on Sunday.

Also, sometimes when I seem vaguely irritated, I might just be in pain. Remember, hurts all the time.

I promise to talk to my new doctor about this (again) when I finally have a new doctor.

I cried a little while I was sitting on the heating pad, because it was such a relief.


2.

Instead of shoulder pain, I had a migraine on Sunday.

Migraines I don't mind so much, because if I hold still they don't hurt, plus they tend to go away. Eventually.

I'm glad this one did, so I could spend some time in the sun and seeing a friend. I am sad that it made me miss smashing things, though. Well, OK, I chose to miss smashing things because I thought it would be prudent.

I think the migraines are the result of allergies plus braces. I hate these rubber bands, man, with a passion.


3.

I would like a make-up weekend, please.


4.

Good weekend things include:

The shrimp and snap pea stir-fry I made for Sunday dinner was tasty. I added marmalade and black bean garlic sauce as seasonings. It ended up neither as tart nor as sweet as I expected, but that's OK.

I have surprise cheeses in my fridge.

I made strawberry shortcake for dinner on Saturday (not dessert, just dinner). The lads say they couldn't tell the difference, but I threw out the old baking powder and bought a new tin, and I think it made a difference in terms of tenderness. Also, I added a little bit of vanilla to the whipped cream this time, and that was quite nice. I'm having fun just cutting the shortcakes into different shapes instead of using a biscuit cutter (which I don't have, I use a can or a drinking glass). Also, the dough is fun to pat out (see cooking, hands, below) and also a good metaphor and thus a palpable reminder for my writing process.

The heating pads are stored right above the vibrators at the drug store. I swear. there was even a Pocket Rocket.

The weather was glorious and I got to walk around in it twice: farmer's market on Saturday and Mission-Dolores on Sunday.

I have a new bead in my earring, and two new earrings on order so that I can match soon. The bead was free. Also, it was hard not to contemplate new holes in my body. Not sure what that's about. I'm having ink cravings too.

A bunch of white irises so gorgeous, I got complimented on them just carrying them home from the market.

I set up the barbell and got the pad out of the closet. My wrists as well as my shoulder are going to appreciate the attention, I can already tell.

My nasturtiums are coming up.

Dear Headache Diary,

I know the nice physician's assistant said that our headache patterns can change as we get older, but among the very last changes I really needed was to acquire a monthly menstrual migraine. Thanks.

Although changing a tampon while having adrenaline shakes sure is interesting.

Yours,


Lori