Lessons Learned Over the Past 24 Hours

In an effort to not get any sicker than I already am, I have turned to radical treatments. I stayed home from work today, cocooned in my room with the humidifier on. I've eaten every fruit known to man and am religiously taking my vitamin C pills. Last night, just before bed, I remembered a trick told to me by my very wise vocal coach in college. It worked then, so I assumed it would work again (see Lesson #1). The trick was to take a raw clove of garlic, chew it and swallow it. Sounds simple, doesn't it? So, here I am, standing in the kitchen with my parents watching me like I was about to jump off a building. I had picked the largest clove I could find, thinking more garlic = more things to fight disease (see Lesson #2). I took the first bite, chewed it and choked it down. This led mom to say something along the lines of "You're taking that like a man". Never a good sign. The second, third and fourth bites were very difficult. In fact, at one point, my eyes teared up because my tongue felt like it was on fire. Being the brilliant young woman that I am, I decided to have a "chaser". It works for tequila, doesn't it? So I pour myself a great big glass of orange juice, thinking that the sweet taste might balance out the burning fires of hell on my tongue (see Lesson #3). So, here I stand in the kitchen, garlic in stomach, empty glass in hand. Things began to churn, so I thought, maybe I need something else in my tummy to help calm it down. There were bananas directly in front of me, so I wolf one down (see Lesson #4). At this point, I decide the best thing to do is to brush my teeth and head off to bed. I get past the toothbrushing part and lay down to sleep. That's when the really bad stuff started. Apparently your stomach doesn't like raw garlic, orange juice, bananas and laying down. The bad news is that I barfed. The good news is I think it was mostly oj and banana. The garlic seemed to stay down. I went down, had another banana, brushed my teeth and went to bed. When I woke up this morning, the first thing I smelled was garlic. Never a good thing. Ever. Today I still felt sick, so I stayed home from work. I did a little research on the effects of garlic (see Lesson #5) and, surprisingly, have felt a little better today than yesterday. I'm thinking this might get better sooner rather than later. The research did point out one little thing:

The ingestion of one to two cloves of raw garlic per day is considered safe in adults. The most common side effect of ingested garlic is breath and body odor. Consumption of excessive amounts of raw garlic, especially on an empty stomach, can cause gastrointestinal upset, flatulence, and changes in the intestinal flora. There have been reports of allergic dermatitis, burns, and blisters from topical application of raw garlic.

Now, I'm not sure what intestinal flora are, but I don't think mine have changed. I did notice a little garlic "odor" today, and pretty much everything I ate or drank had a distinct garlic flavor. It appears that I only had one of the adverse effects (thank God it wasn't the flatulence), which was the gastrointestinal upset. Kind of a nice way to put it. When I talked to Brig today she mentioned that now we were "barf buddies" (she had a little "episode" this weekend after a long night out). So gross Brig. We'd never make it as bulimics.

Now, all of that said, I decided to give it another try tonight. Mom made a great stew, so I cut up a clove and added it to my portion. The results were wonderful - no "gastrointestinal upset"! (see Lesson #6). I'm also happy to report that my sore throat is mostly gone. Woo hoo!

Lessons Learned Over the Past 24 Hours:

• Lesson #1: Things that used to work for you in college generally do not work after college.
• Lesson #2: Don't bite off more than you can chew. Literally. Less is more, especially when it comes to cloves of garlic.
• Lesson #3: Garlic and orange juice don't mix. Ever.
• Lesson #4: Garlic and bananas don't mix. Ever.
• Lesson #5: Research radical cures BEFORE doing them.
• Lesson #6: Mixing raw garlic WITH food is good!

Sick?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The reason you had to wait for 7 days is that I'm formulating the best blog ever! Actually, probably not since I'm feeling poopy today. I woke up with a really sore throat that was followed by major sinus pressure and a headache. Things are not looking good on the sinus front. It's like the immaculate conception of sore throats though, because it doesn't feel like anything is dripping. It's just sore. Very weird.

Anyways, Thanksgiving was wonderful! Kati and Derrek flew in Wednesday afternoon. I was so happy to finally see her again and to get to spend some time together! We hung out and relaxed after a brief trip to the mall (you know Kati). On Thursday, we drove to Adam and Eva's house for the Third Annual Thanksgiving Hullabaloo. As always, it was amazing. Dinner was delicious and "elimination pictionary" was totally a blast! I won a Starbucks card! That's right, my family's Thanksgiving has prizes! Neener neener neener.

Here's the yearly "kids" picture... we decided this year it should be a dog pile:


It was so good to see Jake, Emy and Jared again! The King and Queen of the Hullabaloo (ie. Adam and Eva) put together a wonderful spread!


Here's the whole family gathered around the chocolate fountain:


And, of course, what holiday is complete without Onyx in costume? This year she made a brief appearance in a turkey sweater that was so tight it would make Britney Spears proud:

Can you tell she loved every minute of it?

After all of that yumminess we stopped by Grandma's house to see Grandma, Aunt Sandi and Geoff. We then drove back home.

Friday we hung around the house and watched movies - much needed rest! Friday night we decided to hit the town and go dancing... here's our pre-dancing picture:


We had a great night out on the town and tried a new club that was actually pretty cool!

Saturday morning we got up at the crack of dawn to go to San Francisco (can you tell we tried to cram all kinds of fun into 4 days?). Derrek had never been, so we hit all of the "cool" places.

The Golden Gate:





Pier 39:




And Union Square:



We also went to Lombard Street and did some shopping at Union Square. Then, all of the sudden, it was all over and Kati and Derrek were heading home. Boo! Now I'm home sick. Double boo!

Breaking and Entering... sort of

Today I was out running some errands. It's been a long two days and I'm a little tired. As I was leaving Target, I walked up to a car that looked identical to mine. I pushed the little unlock button on my remote and it didn't work. I sighed and figured it was time to get a new battery, so I stuck the key in the door and opened it... only to look inside and see it wasn't my car. That's right, my key opened someone else's car that happened to be red and sitting one row over from where I parked my car. I was completely in shock and actually said out loud "This isn't my car". A guy who was walking by looked at me and said "cool". So, here's my question - who has the key to my car?!

In other news, KATI COMES HOME TOMORROW! Woot! I'm so excited, I don't even know if I can sleep!

Aida

The highlight of my weekend was seeing "Aida" with my Dad. It was the cutest thing ever - I really wanted to go to the opera, but mom was working and none of my friends really care for it. So I was going to go by myself, but Dad said he'd take me. In case you didn't know it, Dad really doesn't like opera. He tried so hard. I sent him the synopsis the day before ("Aida" is in Italian - I figured he'd like it better if he knew the story before he went). He read through it and then in between each act read through the synopsis in the program so he know what was going to happen next. I think he only nodded off once (he claims he was just listening with his eyes closed). It was such a fun night and just goes to show how much my daddy loves me. :) The best part was on the way home. We were talking about the story and the music and Dad (who, by the way, had been on a plane all day flying back from the East Coast - we're gonna chalk this one off to being tired) turns to me (after listening to three hours of opera) and says: "You know, it's almost like they were singing in a foreign language.". Um, yeah. LOL

Here's us looking all cute in the lobby between Acts 2 and 3:

In other news, I'm SO excited that Kati and Derrek are coming home this week! Woo hoo! We have the Hullabaloo on Thursday (our family's quirky version of Thanksgiving) and I just got the greatest pajamas. They're called "Santa Claws". Basically, it's a bunch of lobsters dressed up like Santa with little seahorses pulling their sleighs and palm trees with Christmas lights. I know we're still a few days before the Christmas season, but I had to have them!

On that note, I'm going to get ready for bed. Tomorrow is my BIG presentation (think happy thoughts between 2-4pm) and then it's smooth sailing to Turkey Day. Night!

Looooooooong Week

Sorry for the lack of posting lately... it's been a seriously crazy week or so at work. I have a pretty hefty presentation coming up on Monday, with a mini-version tomorrow, so it's been work work work for a while. That said, tonight I pulled everything together and am all set to go (I think). I'll feel a lot better after tomorrow's presentation which is basically a "dry run". I'll know what I need to update and what worked. Think happy thoughts!

In other news, I've been hard at work getting ready for the SCSO performances on December 8, 9 and 10th. Speaking of which, if you'd like to go to the show, I have some extra third row tickets for the December 9th performance (GREAT SEATS) for only $35! Let me know if you'd like to come!

Also, Kati gave me some great news today as well. Not only is she coming home for Thanksgiving, but she's bringing her boyfriend, Derrek! It looks like we have a day trip to San Francisco (he's never been) and, of course, the Hullabaloo in the near future! For those of you who don't know, the Hullabaloo is our family's version of Thanksgiving. There's games, food, and naps. And, of course, pajamas! It started a few years ago as a joke (I decided I wanted to wear jammies to be more comfortable, so I went out and bought a pair of adult blanket sleepers), that caught on. Now we all wear pjs and try to come up with the best pair! I'm heading out this weekend to find the perfect jammies!

Is anyone else doing something fun for Thanksgiving?

Oh, the DMV

Wow, first things first, whoa there angry blog readers... deep and calming breath. No honestly, sorry. Work has been consuming my life the last week or so for a variety of reasons I choose not to discuss. Just a couple more weeks until it's over and I get a little breather.

Now, with no further delay, the world famous In-N-Out costumes. Poor Lauren. She probably doesn't even know what In-N-Out is, yet Matt dresses her up...


I have to admit, it's a dang good costume. One I might snag for next year.

So today I voted, which was a pretty cool thing. This cute little old lady stuck one of those "I voted" stickers on my shirt and said "Young lady, you did good by God and your country". To tell you the truth, I felt a little patriotic.

Which quickly dissipated as I went to stand in line at the DMV. Let me tell you, that place scares me a little bit. First of all, why are all those people there at 9:30am? Don't they have jobs? Not all of them could possibly have flexible jobs like mine and no way can they all decide on the same day to go stand in line. Secondly, why do I always get sandwiched between they yucky/scary people? Today it was scary dude all in black wearing his sunglasses indoors (really? Is it that bright? You had better have some sort of eye condition if you're wearing them inside, in my humble opinion) and smelly smoker dude. Gentlemen, let me tell you that there is nothing sexy about a smokers cough or smelling like smoke. Nothing.

Finally, I got several new CDs today - Josh Groban's "Awake" (love it), Keith Urban's "Love, Pain and the whole crazy thing" (haven't listened to it yet) and Dave Matthews Band "Best of What's Around" (not really "new" - more like a greatest hits, however, there are some new live cuts that are pretty good). Yes, music makes me happy.

On that note, I'm off to bed.