Guilt Free Three

Dev Patel - I have a huge crush on this man/boy. Hey, he's 18, so its okay. I have liked him since seeing the show Skins and seem to have dreams about him once a month or so.

Joel McHale - He is so freaking funny on The Soup

David Tennant - The 10th Doctor. He may not be as beautiful by just looking at him, but on screen he is so charismatic and wonderful.

Sweet Tea

Seeing as it is 77°F outside right now. I made this wonderful yumminess:



Sweet tea with fresh mint leaves. I decided mint leaves crushed by my fingers is my new favorite smell of all time.

Updated to add: Okay, it was actually 86°F on Saturday and it is supposed to be 90 effing °F today. But then it will be back to the mid 70's by the end of the week.

TMI

If you are guy, you may want to stop reading now.

I actually started my period today! It has been 67 days since my last one (and no I was never pregnant). I have an appointment for a new ob/gyn in April (there was no openings before then). I am so happy that my body is showing at least this sign that it is working. In January I did a round of clomid 50 mg, but obviously it didn't work. I am annoyed because I don't even know if I ovulated at all because my previous gyno didn't monitor that. I will push for that this time.

This is a great tool for tracking your menstrual cycles. It looks pretty, and is very easy to use; then it predicts when you will ovulate.

I feel cheated

I got a few more books at the library the other day. I haven't read them all yet, but I wanted to mention these two books.

From This Day by Nora Roberts. Okay, I have read a lot of Nora Roberts but this was so crappy. I didn't realize until I started reading it that it is one of her earlier books, published the year I was born. The guy basically infers that he will force himself on this girl if she doesn't open up to him, but that is supposed to make him strong and attractive; but I just thought he was a douche. Then he tells her that they are getting married, not asks, tells. But there was no sex in the entire book! That is just crazy. I don't know when she changed her mind to thinking sex before marriage is okay, but I'm sure glad she did, or I would never read another of her romance novels.

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen. I LOVE this author. This is only the second book she has written, but I will read anything she comes out with for the rest of my life. Her books are magical. I absolutely adored her first book Garden Spells. Amber, you will love these books. Read them now! The Sugar Queen is about a girl, Josey, in her late twenties who is taking care of her mother (who treats her like shit). She hides junk food and romance novels in her closet and is in love with her mailman. Until one day a women she barely knows, Della Lee, show up in her closet and won't leave. Della Lee helps Josey come out of her shell and change her life. I know that kind of sounds like many other "chick lit" novels, but this is not like that; this story is very original. They mention that Josey is just this side of plump, but that is not a big part of the story, she doesn't hate herself and lose weight, and then get the guy (I hate that). She just discovers what was already there.

he can actually play a guitar!

Brad is playing a show tonight if you want to come. Hope to see you there!

in which I cry a lot

Brad was having problems with his asthma yesterday so he stayed home from work. His inhaler had just run out the night before. I told him to call Target to get it refilled and then I would pick it up after work. But he messaged me back that he couldn't talk enough to call Target. I called him right away because I didn't understand what he meant; he was having such a hard time breathing that he could barely talk in full sentences. I freaked out. Remember in that Sex in the City episode where Big is going to have heart surgery and Carrie would just start crying when she tried to talk about it. That was me. I went to the bathroom and balled my eyes out. I left work (after barely being able to ask to leave without crying more) and picked up his inhaler and brought it to him and cried some more right after he used his inhaler and was almost instantly better. I was just so scared. Of course he wasn't scared and said it happens sometimes. I had to remind him that it has never been that bad since we've been together and that has been four+ years.

Of course later that night he felt well enough to have a cigarette. Don't get me started on that.

In which I limp all around San Francisco

My foot has been hurting for awhile, more specifically my heel. When I get out of bed I am limping for a while, if I walk for long distances I start limping. I finally figured out that I most likely have plantar fasciitis. You know what made me figure it out? This awesome ad that I saw in the Sky Mall catalog on the flight to San Francisco in October (I totally want this by the way!)

But what I just realized today (yes, I am stupid) is that wearing tennis shoes, or more supportive shoes helps. So as I have been walking around for the last few months in my flimsy converse shoes and flats with no arch support, that was probably making it worse. I was just being stubborn. Now I need to find some pretty shoes that actually have arch support. Any ideas?

Books

Things I have read in the last couple of weeks:

Amazing Grace by Megan Shull This book was so cute and made me want to move to Alaska. Is there a greater complement?

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin. This is by the same author as Elswhere, which was also such an original story. This was very good, but I didn't really feel that connected to the characters.

Empress of the World by Sara Ryan About a girl falling in love with another girl for the first time.

True Betrayals by Nora Roberts. Girl meets boy, there is some drama, they fall in love. Is there really a need for me to describe this?

Lovers and Dreamers by Nora Roberts. Or this?

Irish Born by Nora Roberts. Or this?

Gabriel's Angel by Nora Roberts. Or this?

First Impressions by Nora Roberts. Or this?

Blue Smoke by Nora Roberts. Or This?

As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial by Derrick Jensen (Author), Stephanie McMillan (Illustrator) This graphic novel was depressing. One of the reasons I gave up soda.

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I love this. This is a companion book to Life As We Knew It. It is about the same event (the moon getting hit with a metor and the aftermath) through the eyes of a teen in a totally different situation.

Wolf Tales by Kate Douglas. Yes this is werewolf erotica, yes it is as bad (and good) as it sounds.

Money

One of our goals this year is to save money; we need to buy a new car, and want to buy a laptop. I am not one of those people who always gets new cars; but if we have a kid at some point, I don't think they will want to be strapped in the bed of my truck. Hopefully after getting a new car I will not have to get another one for ten years.

Here are some of the things we are changing and how much it will save us:
Canceled Sirius radio :sob: $14/month
Changed Netflix from four at time to two at a time: $10/month
Canceled gym membership :joy: $20/month
Stop eating out as much. This will save at least $100/month

After one year, that should save us around $1728. Also I have stopped drinking soda, that is not really for saving money, more my health and the environment; but it can't hurt. If I get water every time we go out instead of soda, that should save some money. $1700 is not that much, but it will feel so good to have actual money in our savings account.

Habby Birthday To Me!

Yesterday I took the day off of work for my birthday. I tried to sleep in but the landscapers were doing their thing (with chainsaws!) and woke me up at like 9:30. Yes, that may seem like sleeping in, but sleeping in for me is like noon. So since I was up, Brad and I took the light rail downtown and had lunch with my Mom and then went to the main Phoenix Public Library. It is five stories tall! It was pretty impressive, but I still like the Tempe one better. But the Phoenix Library does have a way better CD selection. I checked out the following cds from the library:
Rosie Thomas - If Songs Could Be Held
the thermals - the body the blood the machine
Damien Jurado - On My Way to Absence
Emiliana Torrini - Fisherman's Woman
The String Cheese Incident - Outside Inside
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Living with the Living
the Elected - Sun Sun Sun
Patty Griffin - Living with Ghosts
Erin Mckeown - Grand
Ben Weaver - Paper Sky

Some of these groups, I have never listened to, only heard of; so I don't actually know if I will like them all.

Later that night we got sushi with a few friends and then for desert went next door to a Mexican restaurant and got fried ice cream. All of it was super yummy.

Imagination or Symptoms?

I can never tell if I am having real symptoms or just convincing myself I have symptoms after reading what symptoms I "should have". Case in point, when I read side effects for medicines I'm taking, I start to have those symptoms. Really? Or am I just imagining them? The same thing is happening now with pregnancy symptoms. Not that I am not having those symptoms, but some of them can mean that my period is coming as well. Oh well, I will just keep waiting and taking a hpt every couple of days (still negative as of Monday). I really want to save up some money and go to a Reproductive Endocrinologist (my insurance doesn't cover it) because I feel I will get better care there. My regular OB/GYN is just not cutting it. Anyone want to give me the name of their awesome Phoenix based OB/GYN with me?

The T-Mobile Dance

I guess this is an advertisement, but I just love it and it will make you smile! Enjoy.

found via kttke.org

A New Year

I can't believe that I am going to turn 26 in a couple of weeks. It's not so much that I feel old because I love getting older; but I just can't believe that ten years ago I was 16, that I have been working now for ten years, that I have some of the same friends from ten years ago. I changed friends often when I was younger so I never thought I would have long term friends, but it seems that I may now have some of the same friends for life (Amber, Christy, Laura). I remember when I was younger my Mom would talk to her friends that lived in different states. I thought it was odd and couldn't imaging doing that, but now I have friends like that. Friends that you are not making new memories with, mostly just re-hashing old memories when you speak. But that is also falling by the wayside because of Myspace and Facebook. I can just look on there to see what some old friends are doing. I don't really talk to anyone on those sites, I just check some old friends' sites to see what they are up to.

P.S. I started using Twitter. So follow me if you would like

Derby Girl/ Whip it!

I just read this book yesterday. I loved it so much (I say this about almost all books, except Inexcusable, grrr, I hated that book)! It is a bout a small town teenage misfit who often visits the closest biggest city Austin, Texas and ends up joining the Roller Derby team there. I identify with most teenage girls in books (what? I was a teenage only 6 years ago!), but this one actually was interested in things like music and activities that I am interested in. If I had even more confidence than I already have, I would love to join Roller Derby, or if I knew how to skate well. She falls for a guy in a band along the way. Which is bad news, except for all the guys I know in bands; who are great guys and wonderful boyfriends/husbands.

Just now while searching for stuff about this book, I found out that it is being made into a movie! Directed by Drew Barrymore! Starring Juno star Ellen Page! But the lead guy does not look like the guy described in the book (too hipster, not enough rock'n'roll), boo!

I hate Raymond

I remember not so long ago that every time I turned on the TV I could probably find a Friends or Scrubs episode; and it was awesome. I love those two shows. But that time has ended. As the powers that be have decided instead to show King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Two and a Half Men on every channel. I dislike all of these shows, but I really hate Everybody Loves Raymond especially because it does make me laugh sometimes (which makes me hate myself). But Raymond is a freaking jerk to his wife, he is a mama's boy, and is so super annoying. I just really despise him and can't watch that show for more than five minutes at a time.

Juanita June Teach (Lidgard) 1920-2008

My Great Grandmother died yesterday at home, asleep, surrounded by her family. She hasn't been doing well for awhile and broke her hip a few weeks ago while in Hawaii and it has been downhill since then. This weekend all the family was called to come and visit her because she wasn't really waking up anymore and they were just keeping her comfortable. We didn't know how long she would last because of her pacemaker, but she died yesterday and my Dad told me he was by her side.

I am feeling very sad for my Great Aunt Sally right now. A year ago she was living with three people; her husband Lee, her mother (my g.grandmother) and her stepfather (my step-great grandfather and my ggma's fourth husband). My step-g.grandfather died earlier last year, my Great Uncle Lee died a couple of days after our wedding in October and now my grandmother. It has been a lot for her to handle and I'm not sure where she will go from here.

My g.grandma was 88 years old and only in the last six months or so has her memory even started going at all. She went to Hawaii only a few weeks ago to visit her son and always commented on how she needed to meet new men. She was funny and opinionated. I love that when I went to visit her in October, she told me that she really liked Obama. I wish I would have known more about her life; I don't even know much about my parents' lives when they were younger. My family is not big on sharing which is something I plan on changing with my own family. But she did tell me one story not too long ago.

I asked her how she got together with my g.grandfather; she told me the story of how when she was about 20 she was dating a Bohemian (her words, I didn't quite know what that meant) and her Mother did not like it one bit. Della forbid her from seeing the said Bohemian. So to spite her mother, Juanita married my great grandfather Ralph Irwin who was 20 years her senior. Well her mother was not happy about that either. Always the rebellious one!

Four years

New Years eve/day was Brad and mine's four year anniversary of the date we got together. My mother has already informed me that now I have to count my wedding date as my anniversary. No thanks! I like having our anniversary on a holiday, although we did get married on National Coming Out Day!

We were watching an episode of X-Files yesterday where Skinner and his wife almost got divorced and she said that they had become only roommates to each other. I told Brad that even if we ever fell out of love that I wanted to live with him forever because he is the best roommate ever! He is my best friend. I am so thankful that he puts up with my laziness. There is nothing that we love more than to spend the day in bed watching movies. He has a sweet tooth and he asks me to make ice cream at ten o'clock at night (although the frozen yogurt last night was my idea). He is such a talented artist and musician. I think his song lyrics are amazing and his comics are so witty. I hope that he finds a path to do what he loves and get paid for it

Brad, I love you so much!

I need more information!

I just finished this book. It was so so good. I loved it. But it had the same problem that I have with many books and movies; what happens next! I get so invested in these characters' lives and then I never get to know how they end up. At the end of a book/movie I don't want to have to imagine that the couple got married, or what their house looks like, or if they had kids, or if she reunited with her family, etc.... That is why I'm reading a book because I want you tell me a story with a beginning, middle, and an end. Just hinting at things won't do it for me. That is why I really liked the epilogue in the final Harry Potter book. It gave me closure. Yes, I like those paragraphs at the end of movies that tell me how the characters end up. I want a book that follows a character all the way to their death and then maybe keeps going with a sequal about that characters kids. I want a never ending series.

Name Change

I finally changed my name and got my new driver's license today. I originally went in and changed it in November, but that was a disaster. In my state, first you have to go to the SS office and change your name there. So my birth name is Bubba Shannon Magillicutty (some names have been changed!) I have always gone by my middle name Shannon since I was very little so I wanted to get rid of my first name, make my middle name my first name and my maiden name my middle name. So at the SS office I changed my name to Shannon Magillicutty Dwyer (Dwyer is Brad's last name). They had no problem doing this.

Then two days late I go to the DMV to get a new license and they say no go. I am not allowed to change my first name, the only thing I am allowed to do is drop my last name and add his last name. I can't do hyphenated or anything else. I only have one choice (or I might have been able to just add his last name, giving me four names). If I wanted to keep Shannon Magillicutty Dwyer I would have to apply for a legal name change which costs about $300 and I would have to go to court and everything. So now I have new social security card with one name and a driver's license with another. I was very upset.

So I dilly dallied for the last month trying to decide what to do. Finally a few days ago I went back to the SS office and just changed my last name to Dwyer. So now I am Bubba Shannon Dwyer. I had to take a new picture for the license at the DMV because my last picture was from when I was 16, ten years ago. Of course I haven't taken a shower today and I look like crap. Oh well, I have a new name and all is well in the world.

I am pretty pissed at the status quo and that there are not many options for people changing their names. I think as long as one keeps two out of your three birth names, one should be able to change their name to any combination they choose. Boo to the patriarchy!

Hallelujah Vacation Hours!

I have spent the last couple of months since the wedding with no vacation hours left. It really stinks. Thankfully since we are not busy they have been letting us take some days off without pay. It was great being able to take off the two days before Christmas, but it means that my paycheck today was crappy.

The last three years I got three weeks of vacation a year, but since this year marks my four year anniversary here, I now get four weeks of vacation. That is so amazing to me. I could take off a whole month of work and get paid for it!

Unfortunately our vacation doesn't accumulate so this time all has to be used this year. So I am going to try and save most of it but if I am not pregnant by April (if I am I will need to save the time for maternity leave) I will be taking a lot of vacations! I am not one to take really long vacations. I usually take a day off every few weeks just to sleep in and do nothing.