Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009

Where did you begin 2008?
I was at a party with loved ones. :T

What was your status by Valentine's Day?
In a questionable relationship.

Were you in school (anytime this year)?
No.

Did you have to go to the hospital?
A couple of times.

Did you have any encounters with the police?

One! We got away by claiming to be out-of-state though.

Where did you go on vacation?
Didn't really go on vacation this year.

What did you purchase that was over $500?
A Playstation 3, does that count as this year? Suppose it could.

Did you know anybody who got married?
Probably...

Did you know anybody who passed away?
No one I knew, know people who knew people who passed away, though.

Did you move anywhere? 
Yes.

What sporting events did you attend?
None.

What concerts/shows did you go to?
I haven't been to a concert since like 2001...

Where do you live now?
Florida.

What's the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2008?
Have blood drawn from a fingertip? I'll go with that.

What has/have been your favorite moment(s)?
When my family came over to visit, that was loads of fun.
Also when I was sick and could not eat a friend brought me a box of chocolate donuts (my favorite) to encourage me to eat something. It was really sweet, no pun intended.

What's something you learned about yourself?
I'm too sexy for this song.

Any new additions to your family?
Hm...

What was your best month?
What month was my grandpa here? I don't remember, but it was that one.

What music will you remember 2008 by?
The damned Inn theme from WoW, apparently. Or the catchy travel/exploring theme from Lost. XD

Made new friends?
Not in person.

Favorite Night[s] out?
Rocknes, with my whole family.

Any regrets?
Never.

What do you want to accomplish in 2009?
Move... be healthier... eh.

What would you change about 2008?
Anything I would change, I had no control to, so... nothing.

Other than home, where did you spend most of your time?
Does Silvermoon count? What about Naxxramas?

Have any life changes in 2008?
I had a keen epiphany.

Change your hairstyle?
A few times!

Get a new job?
No.

Do you have a New Year's resolution?
Not this year it seems.

Did anything embarrassing?
More than likely.

Buy anything new from eBay?
No.

What was/were your favorite purchase[s]?
People have favorite purchases? Huh. I guess... Fable 2?

Get married or divorced?
No.

Get arrested?
No.

Be honest - did you watch American Idol?
Nope.

Did you get sick this year?
Naturally.

Start a new hobby?
Nah, I have a ton of hobbies already.

Been snowboarding?
I would probably break a bone.

Are you happy to see 2008 go?
Not like 2008 did anything to me. This question makes it out to be some sort of bad guy. lol.

Drank Starbucks in 2008?
Durf.

What are you wishing for in 2009?
Happiness, healthiness, and wealth for everyone I know.

Happy Holidays Everyone

Happy Holidays everyone! Whether you celebrate a holiday this time of year or not, I hope you have a great day today. That's all.

Week One

So, I took my first pill on Friday. I now know what to expect every Friday-Sunday. Basically every pill makes me OD on Vitamin D. My body's initial reaction is to throw-up and try to expel it, but, I can't! I'm not allowed. So for an hour or so after I take the pill I just lay around focusing all of my energy on not puking.

After the first hour it's a little better. The urge to boat subsides and I just feel a little, blah. I take it before bed, so whatever happens next I'm asleep for and miss.

The next day I wake up like a kangaroo on crack. I've never had so much energy. I hopped right out of bed after 8 hours and was rearing to go. Super-hyper. Unfortunately this causes me to expend all of my energy and about 4 hours later I crash. If I don't eat or drink something with caffeine or sugar, I'll fall asleep.

I crashed so bad I almost fell asleep while playing video games -- sitting up. Yeah, as in completely upright. Thankfully I had a can of Dr. Pepper conveniently waiting to save the day. It's rare we keep soda in stock, so I'm glad we happened to have it handy.

Other than that I get random cramps, and headaches when I stand up. Not so bad. Let's see what week 2 brings.

Frozen Pipes

How many repair men does it take to fix a pipe?

Yesterday morning my friend and I are sitting in the living room playing video games when all of the sudden he hears this loud hissing noise. He is like, "What the hell is that noise?"

Naturally my reply is, "What the hell do you mean, 'what is that noise?'"

So he gets up to check and I hear , "Oh my god!"

I retort, "What the hell do you mean 'Oh my god'?!" and jump out of my seat to go see for myself.

Water... everywhere. EVERYWHERE!

A pipe beneath the sink froze and burst due to the weather, spraying freezing cold water all over the room. My kitchen is pretty huge so when I say there was water spraying everywhere... that's a big problem!

My friend, who is a boy and automatically assumes responsibility to save my house says, "What do I do?" cause he used to live where it's warm and sunny. Pipes do not freeze near the equator. So here I am thinking back to when I was about 7 years old and a pipe had burst in our kitchen... trying to remember what my mother had done to stop the leaking.

A knob. She crawled under the sink and turned a knob! I'm shouting by this point because I can rarely hear myself speak under normal circumstances, so I felt the need to be louder, "TURN A KNOB!"

My friend dumbfounded is like, "What? Turn a knob? wtf are you talking about?"

"THERE SHOULD BE A KNOB UNDER THE SINK NEAR THE PIPES. IT TURNS THE WATER OFF. SO TURN THE KNOB!" Unfortunately the backwards plumbing here made the knob useless as turning it in either direction did absolutely nothing. By this point I have an armful of hand towels and I'm throwing them on the tile to prevent the water from rising any higher and threatening the carpet.

I call my mother in desperation and she in her typical motherly way says, "Go to your water heater and turn the knob near the pipes leading outside. It will turn off water to the entire house, but at least you won't be flooding anymore."

So we attempt this and low and behold this knob? Also does nothing! We notice a brightly colored lever a few feet away and pull that in desperation. Finally, the water stops.

But wait, the fun doesn't end there. My mother has to make the call for me since, y'know deaf phonecalls and all etc., to get a repair man over. The guy shows up right away, she must have convinced him there was worldly peril or something because seriously less than 10 minutes later he was at our door. He comes in takes at look at the problem and declares, "Wow. I'm going to need help for this let me call my partner."

So he calls his partner and about 10 minutes later his partner shows up. He comes in, takes a look then states, "Ah, I should be able to solder this back together in no time. I just need some parts. Let me make a call."

Ten minutes after that a third repair man shows up with the parts and together they fix the problem. So the answer to my previous question: 3.

Edit: Posted this at 2:22, I win!

Butterfly Needle: Name Deceiving

I had a doctor's appointment this morning, all looks well for the most part. Had blood work run to check for a vitamin deficiency because my hands and feet are always cold and numb. My doctor thinks if it was a circulation thing then when I walked around a lot (like say when shopping) my feet would be warmer, but since they aren't it's got to be something else. I've had the problem for years now, but it's recently gotten a little worse, which makes it more annoying. Won't have any results back on that until the 18th though.

On one hand I hope they're negative so it's not something I have to worry about. On the other hand if it's not a vitamin deficiency then that means I'll have to worry about something else. So it's kind of like, worrying either way I guess.

It's kind of weird because I eat cereal on a daily basis and pretty much all cereal is super enriched these days. Most has at least 45% of your daily requirements across the vitamin board, while others have a complete 100%. I used to be on a super vitamin (200%-500% DV) but had the problem back then, too. So if vitamins are low that means I'm probably incapable of absorbing them through my digestive tract. Meaning I'd need whatever vitamins missing injected, kind of like insulin.

A mortifying thought for someone who is afraid of needles.

I haven't been to Physical Therapy in a while. I just work on using the thumb on my own now. My doctor said I could stop going so long as I continued to work on it myself or continue going for the full course of sessions. Thing is my insurance only covers a certain amount of PT time and if I use it all up on my thumb, what happens if I need it down the line? I can do all the exercises and such at home, anyway.

One thing I noticed that makes excellent strength training for the thumb is trying to open pistachios. Especially ones that are barely cracked. I still drop things a lot, and I find myself using my hand to push more than the thumb itself when moving say, the analog stick on my 360 controller. But if it works, it works. Humans adapt, that's why we're not extinct yet.

Results

As it turns out, my vitamin levels were low. Specifically my potassium (which is weird), B12, and vitamin D. My B12 levels were only marginally low, and my potassium levels were moderately lower than normal, my vitamin D levels however are practically nonexistent. Any lower and I probably wouldn't be able to get out of bed, so it's a good thing we caught it.

They are so low that it would take years to bring them up normally. I have to take prescription-strength vitamin D to get them up faster. So for the next 3 months I take these pills, then we test my blood again to see if it's improved. If that doesn't work then it's probably injections for me.

On a plus note, I should be feeling a little better by the middle of... next year.