kreepshow has reminded me that I haven't posted here in um, forever.

Let's see. We're married. And happy. Thanksgiving was spent at the home of some friends who also had their parents and some work people who were visiting from China and had never had Thanksgiving. That was entertaining. :)

I managed to gain like 20 pounds in the 2 months around/after the wedding. Binge much? Yikes. Gave up on trying to fix it until after Christmas.

Now that I'm married, I have health insurance through broken23's work! So I had a doctor's appt last week. She prescribed a calcium channel blocker for my Raynaud's (the problem where the blood vessels in my hands close off when I get cold/stressed/full and I lose all the circulation and feeling) and since the first pill, I have only experienced minor numbness in one finger for approximately one minute and then the feeling came back. This has been somewhat debilitating for nearly ten years, and one pill a day fixes the whole thing. WTF.
I also have an appointment to see a gastroenterologist about the problems with my throat. Looks like I'll be having an endoscopy sometime late next month and we'll see what's up and what can be done about it.

Today was a crappy day at work where a whole bunch of good people including some of my good friends got laid off with no notice, 3 days before the Christmas holiday. Bad times.

Hmm what else? The new Versailles album comes out next month and the little previews on their website sound awesome so I am really really excited about it. I preordered it forever ago. Also Christmas is coming, which means Chinese food and presents and stuff. I hung up Christmas lights on our house as a surprise.

Oh we bought a GIANT gorgeous TV with some of our wedding money and now we are glued to it. 46 inches of bliss. It's unreal how amazing stuff looks on it. Now of course we have to re-buy everything on Blu-ray. :)

I guess that's it.
I'm on Facebook ALL THE FREAKIN TIME nowadays, so if you haven't already you should totally add me there. If you're one of my friends here and don't know my full name to find me on FB, just comment or send me a message or something and I'll remedy that situation. :)

Well... it's done.

I'm a married woman!! :D

Hopefully now I will regain my sanity and a little free time, and I can post more online. The wedding went fairly smoothly (minus a couple of snafus - it started 40 minutes late, my playlist was all screwed up, and I had to be sewn into my dress at the top, hehe) and everyone seemed to have a good time!
There will be oodles of pictures later I'm sure :)

Since I was tagged by the lovely ladymusashi...

( survey meme )

And because I'm a rule-breaker, I refuse to tag people hahaha
Do it if you want :D

I haven't had much to write about recently!

First my life was completely full of VAMPS-related stuff. and now that that's over, it's completely full of wedding-related stuff!
We're so far behind on some things! Gah!

And work has been atrocious. Last Thursday I was so busy that I never got a break or lunch or anything. I made a run to the cafeteria for coffee about 10 minutes into my day, and didn't leave the lab until I left. And that was a gym day too - I was exhausted.

I had another workout with the trainer today. It's good stuff. I'd like to continue working out with her but I don't think I can afford it. At least I'm getting some basic instruction so I know what to do on my own later.

Now I'm hungry!

Oh and the wacky strep infection seems to be cleared up. I've still got some mild puffiness and pain/numbness in the roof of my mouth but nothing like before. *whew*. That was so bizarre.

And the icon because we watched FF7: Advent Children director's cut on Blu-ray last night. :)

So it turns out that my wacky fungal infection of the mouth wasn't a fungal infection at all. It was an uncommon strain of streptococcus infection in my mouth, not throat. I'm on penicillin and some strange painkiller that I've never had before.

At least we know what's wrong now and I should start to get better very soon. Which will be nice since I've missed two days of work and it's been 5 days of constant severe pain. Maybe I can actually go to work tomorrow... that will depend on if I can sleep tonight or not.

Yesterday afternoon I was feeling OK for a few hours so I went to my personal trainer session so I didn't have to cancel it and make her mad. By the end of it, not only was I red-faced and half-dead, but my mouth felt like it was about to explode! That was a bad idea. Of course, my whole body is sore now, hehe

Leave it to me to get the wacky strep infection. Funny thing is, it's not the first time! Just different.

So for the past few days I've been experiencing some pretty severe mouth pain. Mainly in the soft palate. I thought maybe it was a minor infection or something, and hoped it would clear up on its own, but when I woke up this morning it was even worse than yesterday. So, we went to an urgent care clinic.

The guy there says it looks like a fungal infection. Yippee.

I have to swish this banana-flavored stuff in my mouth and hold it there as long as possible for 5-7 days, and it should be significantly better in 48 hours. Which is about when they'll have the cultures back from the swab they did which should confirm it. *sigh*

This is some of the most significant pain I've ever been in for an extended period of time. It radiates out through my teeth, down my neck, and out my ears, and gives me a headache. I hope it clears up *really* soon.

So yeah yesterday was my birthday.

broken23 got me a bunch of cool stuff. There was a bit of a theme going on, hehe - he got me a bunch of jrock stuff. Some cds and magazines, and a photobook, and a little towel. And a little collectible hide guitar (the black one with the flowers - the one that's on stage in his place in the I.V. video) that plays Rocket Dive when you press a button. It was brand new, still in the box, from the hide museum. Unfortunately, the person he bought it from just put it in an envelope and mailed it from Japan, and the box got totally smooshed, but the guitar is fine. So I think it will just stay out of the box. It's neat. :)

Oh yeah, and... the new Star Wars toaster. Yes, now all of our toast will have Darth Vader burned onto it. :D

He made me cinnamon rolls for breakfast (yum) and I had to do a word search to find the hidden locations of my presents hehe.

And then afterward, we went to Seaside (on the Oregon Coast) and spent the afternoon wandering around stores, buying too much candy, and having sushi. We got two more little sculptures for our shelves above the fireplace - a sleeping cat that looks just like Samantha in a cartoony way, and a weird skull for the skull collection.

Came home and watched House on DVD while having coffee and cake. Very nice birthday. :)


Edit: Oh yeah, my dad called in the morning while David was making breakfast to wish me happy birthday. He also said my grandma was in a car accident the other day! She's OK but her car was totaled and she had to get a new one. She's got bruises all over and a sore neck, but it otherwise fine. I guess she was completely stopped on the road (it's a busy 4-lane road, with no turn lane) with her turn signal on, waiting for a break in the oncoming traffic so she could turn left into their street, and someone came up behind her and never even hit the brakes. Her car spun around twice and she ended up in the parking lot across the street. I guess everyone was ok - the guy who hit her didn't speak English, and his insurance hasn't been verified yet. So, she got a new car. Good times.

OK, here's my recap of the VAMPS show here in Portland. I was the official street team leader for this show, so I had a little work to do while I was there this time.

I've got some pictures for this one too, but maybe not as many because I was busier this time.

( Portland is VAMPStastic! )

And I realised I never posted my Barcelona photos. *sigh* Oops. I'm getting to it! :D

Sorry about my absence. I'm OK, but the VAMPS shows really tired me out and then it's been over 100 degrees here every day and I've just been coming home and jut crashing in front of the TV with ice water. But that was nearly 2 weeks ago! So I'd better write about the shows before I forget what happened!

This entry will be about the Seattle show only. Portland, coming soon. :)

Recap with pictures under the cut!!

( ~~Yeaaaah just free your miiiiiind!~~ )

...I never posted here that I cam home!

I'm home! And have been since Sunday afternoon :)
Spain was awesome. And awesomely hot. There are a crapload of pictures which I will be posting over the next few days.

Today my dad had surgery on his back. I got a call from my grandma a few minutes ago and she said that he is doing OK, but that they're not sure if the surgery will completely fix his back or not. *crosses fingers* Even if it doesn't completely fix it, hopefully it will at least give him some relief. :-/

Also, when I came home from work today, I found Vern the Cat sleeping on broken23's suitcase - right next to my suitcase, which he had peed on twice. I then went to get the mail, and when I came back I saw that Vern had peed on my suitcase a third time while I was outside. FML.

Still alive, still in Spain.

We leave very early tomorrow morning to go home to Portland.
This has been very fun but a little overwhelming!! :)

Just a quick update...

We're in a coffee house in a little town on the coast of Spain, about 45 minutes from Barcelona. It's very warm here - much warmer than I thought it would be with the humidity. I have a giant 'fro - my hair is not used to this!

There's a lot of walking to be done - his parents don't have a car and everyone here walks everywhere anyway. Yesterday we think we walked about 5 miles or so. And today has been similar but not as bad.

We were hoping there would be a wifi connection near his parents house that we could hijack, but there's nothing open. Oh well.

Yesterday we got in at about 9am, and after going to his parents house and resting a bit, we went to a touristy/shopping area, and then to the docks and over to a mall where we walked a bit and then ate at a tapas restaurant.

Today we took the train to this little town called Sitges (where we are now) which is also a little touristy but very pretty. We just had a HUGE lunch at a restaurant called La Nina and walked to this coffee place because broken23 remembered that they have free wifi. So I'm all caught up on my email, briefly checked Facebook/Twitter, paid/bid for something on eBay, showed his parents some pictures from Multnomah Falls, and wrote this update. All while enjoying the coastal Spanish air and a lovely mocha frappe. :D

I should wrap this up because I think his parents are getting bored. Maybe I get get online again soon!

So yeah... tomorrow around noon, I'll be on a plane headed towards Europe!

We'll be in Barcelona with broken23's parents for about a week. I'm both excited and completely terrified at the same time :)
But... it will be really fun, I'm sure. David's friend has taken on the task of checking on the kitties every other day, so we don't have to have them boarded. They'll be lonely, but at least they'll be in their own home which should be less traumatic. I spent a couple of hours this evening making them 4 new catnip toys. ^_^

I'm mostly packed. Minus the bathroom stuff and a couple clothing items that are still in the dryer. And my iPod which is charging. And shoes. But yeah, mostly packed.

We shall return to PDX on July 5th, mid-day. I am pretty sure that we'll be online quite regularly. Certainly we can find a wifi hotspot nearby. So expect the occasional update from me. Right now, I'm going to go lay down for a few!

There was a request from ladymusashi for pics from my latest shopping trip. I have this one picture of the dress I got (size 12!!) from when I was in the fitting room but I don't have pictures of the other stuff yet.

( The aforementioned dress and some miscellaneous camwhoring from Facebook under the cut. )

Work sucks. Tomorrow I have to apologize for losing my marbles and yelling. Serenity now... serenity now...

Wheeeee I suck and forgot about Livejournal. Stupid Facebook.

Today I tried on clothes at Fred Meyer and found out that I'm a size 12 in a-line dresses! Naturally, I bought one. I'll be taking it with me to Europe! :)
(I also got a pair of red capri pants, a black top, some uber-clearance tank tops, and a new waist cincher shapewear thing. Yes I said red capri pants.)

Speaking of... we leave for Spain on Saturday! And we won't be back until the following Sunday. I'm very excited. This is my first time to Europe!

Also... I thought I posted this like 5 hours ago. FAIL.
*faceplant*

See? I told you I keep forgetting to post. :P
I started typing this up before I started having a gall bladder attack, but I really wanted to post something because I said I would. So here you go.


I come bearing pictures though! I've actually taken some photos this month. Please forgive the oversaturation and color wacky-ness on a couple of them - I edited those on my laptop and I didn't realize how off the colors were until I uploaded them.

Teasers:


( ...and there's some of the fiance and myself under the cut )

I'm going to go take pills and lie down now. Or possibly vomit. Hopefully not in that order.

I keep telling myself over and over again that I'll post something on LJ "soon" or "later" or "today"... and then I don't.

*faceplant*

Blame the iPhone or Facebook or something - that's where I spend all my time!
Real post to follow "soon" or "later" or "today" or something. ;)

Today I saw another new number on the scale... a 7.
I'm 179.6 as of this morning. This means I'm 4.6 pounds from my goal weight, and have officially lost 130 pounds since my highest weight and 115 since my surgery. Holy crap. I bet I can lose that 4.6 this week if I really work hard. If not this next weekend, then the one after that, I *will* be at my goal of 175. And then I can try on my wedding dress again.

I don't feel like I'm at any "goal" weight, but I can always set a new goal. This is just the goal weight that my doctor and I talked about and both felt like it would be a healthy, realistic goal for me. At the time I didn't think it was realistic because I thought it would never happen, but now I know it will :)

Anyway, yesterday I decided that I needed some new clothes in a serious way. Kohl's was having their "power hours" sale (where there's sales on some stuff if you buy it before noon) and I had a 15% off everything coupon, so I bought a bunch of stuff. And then I stopped at Macy's for fun and tried on expensive things and ended up buying one not-too-expensive shirt. That shirt is pictured below for one reason: It's a size medium.

It was the last one, and I really liked it and wanted to try it on, and I was thinking "well, I could *see* how tight it is, and then if I really want it I could look at macy's.com and order it in a large!" but when I tried it on it was just barely too tight around my flappy-with-extra-skin belly. And I loved it. So I bought it. And then I ran over to the lingerie section and put on some shapewear to suck in that skin and put the shirt back on over it, and... it looks awesome. So I took a picture in the fitting room.

If only my butt/thighs/upper arms would catch up with the lower half of me... hot damn. :D

From the left: Me in the aforementioned "Medium" shirt, me in a dress that I also bought at Kohl's yesterday (so pretty), and me at 295 pounds in October 2007. Ignore the face in the first one ;) Click for full size.