I went to Vegas with Alex, Danielle, and her boyfriend, Justin over the weekend.  It was fun getting to go back to Vegas with Alex again.  We’ve only been one other time together about 2 years ago, and I wasn’t old enough to gamble at the time.  We had fun playing blackjack together   And when I could barely walk because of my joint pain late at night, he helped me walk.  He was also a good sport about leaving the casinos earlier than planned because it was getting to be too much for me.  So we went back to the hotel and he drew me a bath and gave me massages and everything.  It’s so nice having someone that cares about me so much when I’m having difficulties like this.

Speaking of the pain… I have another doctor appointment this Friday and I made an appointment to see a Rheumatologist on December 2nd, which was the earliest I could get in.  It’s getting unbelievably frustrating not knowing what is going on with me.  I can’t do half the things I was able to do before this started happening.  And while I may have a few days or even a week where I don’t really experience much pain, it always comes back.  And I’m sick of the doctors taking forever to see me and then not even having anything to tell me when I do see them.

On another note… I registered for classes this morning for next semester.  Here’s what it looks like:

MON - 4:15-7:00p - Marriage & Family Therapy I (PSY 639) with Amy Tuttle
TUE - 5:00-7:00p - Psychopharmacology (PSY 627) with Diana Hurlbut (only meets 9 weeks)
THU - 4:15-7:00p - Techniques of Counseling & Psychotherapy (PSY 637) with George Nalbach
THU - 7:15-10:00p - Clinical Management of Psychopathology (PSY 600) with Lisa Fasnacht-Hill
SAT (1/10 & 1/24) - 9:00a-4:45p - Human Sexuality (PSY 628) with Susan Johnson

It sounds like a lot… but it’s only 12 units, 1 class only meets on 2 saturdays in January, and 1 is only a 9 week course.  I just think it’s so doable so it doesn’t make sense not to cram this much in, especially while I still don’t have to do my practicum.  So it shouldn’t be too bad of a semester.

Ashley and Alan’s wedding was so beautiful, and I’m really happy that I was able to be part of it in such a major way.  I’ll never have another best friend get married (probably because I only have the one, haha) so this was such an amazing experience for me.  I uploaded tons of photos from the whole weekend to myspace and facebook, and once we get the professional photos back I’ll make a Flickr album as well.  It was just such a beautiful day and the flowers were beautiful as well.  And the reception hall was just so romantic and everyone was having an awesome time and dancing and everything.  It was such a success.  And everyone loved my toast, especially Ash, which was the whole point anyway.  Yay

Getting Ready

Walking down the aisle

The beautiful ceremony

Outside the church, my mom, me, and my sister

The wedding party

The first dance

The lack of sleep I got over the weekend took quite a toll on me, however.  I’ve had a pretty bad sore throat the past couple days, and my joints have been extra painful as well.  I’m still trying to figure out what I’ve got.  I got a call from the doctor yesterday saying they didn’t take enough blood at my last appointment so I need to go in to get more drawn.  Ugh.  I just want to know what I have.  The good news is that it doesn’t look like it’s Rheumatoid Arthritis according to my first blood test.  And my doctor doesn’t think it’s an autoimmune disease at all.  I don’t really believe him though, and more blood tests will hopefully give some answers.

Halloween was awesome this year.  I had so much fun with Alex, Ash, and Alan.  We’re such a fun little group, haha.  And we looked amazing in our Playboy outfits   I think they were our best Halloween costumes thus far.  I uploaded a ton of picture to facebook and myspace, so go check them out if you want.  Here’s a preview:

Last night I went to this private party in Culver City entitled Wonderland that my sister was hired to perform at (which I think I mentioned in an earlier entry).  I was a swan   It was fun, but the night turned into shit pretty quickly and I don’t feel like discussing it.  Things are probably going to be pretty strange with my sister for awhile now after this, but I hope we can get through it.  I think it has to do with the fact that she doesn’t know how to process/handle my recent physical problems and she seems to be going about it completely wrong in my mind.  That’s really all I care to say on the matter.  Here are a few pics from last night:

I’ve been pretty hungover today, probably as a result of both Friday and Saturday night combined.  I had a field trip with my group therapy class this afternoon called “Art and Creativity for Healing” at a little studio in Laguna Niguel.  It was amazingly fun actually!  We were given blank canvases and were asked to express our emotions.  After we finished each painting we went around the room talking about our creations.  It was a really cool experience.

The first one was called “Melting Colors.”  We were told to imagine a scene where we were in the middle of a garden and the colors were just sort of melting around us.  This is what I came up with:

I thought of darker colors running together as if it was raining.

The next piece was on a bigger canvas, and it was called “What is Going On?”  This one was a lot more complex and tells about 6-7 different stories including things that are currently bothering me, people who are involved, consequences, happiness, spirituality, and love.

The red and brown in the upper left is the explosion between my sister and I that happened last night.  The flower in the bottom right corner is love.  The blue and orange spread throughout represents Alex and my mom (happiness that just sort of engulfs everything), and the teal and black in the upper right represents my feelings in the moment (mixed emotions raining down).

The last one is on a tiny canvas and it’s called “Gratitude.”  We were asked to just portray our idea of gratitude.

The colors that clearly came to mind for me with gratitude were orange and pink.  I’m not sure what the different shapes mean but I guess they’re sort of like happy swirls.  When I finished the painting I decided to give it the little border you see.  Not for any particular reason other than I just thought it would look cool.

When I got home I showed my mom my paintings and she wants to frame them, expecially the 2nd one   I’ll probably put the other 2 in my room.  I love how each one has it’s own little story and totally expresses what I was feeling at the time.

Today was my first mostly pain-free day in awhile, and I relished in it.  I ran up the stairs, hopped in my car, and lifted things   It’s been really depressing not being able to do those things.  One evening at school, I saw someone running down the stairs of the parking structure and I almost started crying because I couldn’t do that myself.  I also got a lot of shopping done today for miscellaneous upcoming events.  I bought a white feather boa for my swan costume on Saturday night.  I also bought a bunch of favors for the bachelorette party next week.  I’m probably going to relax and soak in the jacuzzi tonight.  Yes… that sounds like a good idea.

I’m also going to Vegas in 2 weeks!  A friend of mine from Pepperdine wants to go for her birthday, and it’s going to be her, her boyfriend, me, and Alex.  She knows someone who works at the Residence Inn Marriot in South Vegas, which is just a couple streets over from the Strip.  We got a suite with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a kitchen for only $120 a night, and since I’ll be paying 1/4 of it, that means the whole weekend is only going to cost me $60 (+ about $30 for gas and well, food and drinks and stuff).  The hotel even includes a free breakfast buffet which I’m in love with, haha.  She also has a friend who works at Tao, and she said he can get us a VIP table… so yay for that.  I’ve been wanting to go back to Vegas with Alex anyway, so this was the perfect opportunity.

I can’t believe it’s Halloween tomorrow already…  This semester has flown by.

My sister and I cooked a yummy dinner tonight of breaded chicken, potatoes au gratin, and aspargus, complete with a berry cobbler for dessert.  Alex actually made the cobbler.  It was yummy.  I’m starting to realize how much I enjoy cooking and how much I detest eating out these days.  It’s so much more satisfying and less fattening to cook at home.  I can sense a trend forming

To-Do List:

1. Study for Learning Theories midterm (which is on Monday)
2. Turbo Kickboxing class Friday at 9am at 24 Hour Fitness
3. Private practice visit Friday at 2pm
4. Support group observation Friday at 7pm at some church in Irvine
5. Visiting my grandma in Palm Springs on Saturday
6. Disneyland on Sunday with Sheila
7. Buy bachelorette party stuff
8. Buy pink boa for my swan costume (for the Hyatt on Nov 1st)

I know it’s not a long list… but I felt the need to write everything down.

Ash and I bought our playboy bunny costumes a few days ago… it’s super cute

Except we got sparkly pink shoes to wear with it.  So basically, on the 31st I’m going to be the bunny (along with Ash… while Alex and Alan are twin Hugh Hefners LOL)… then on the 1st, at this club in LA that my sister is performing aerial at, I’m going to ditch the cotton tail and the bunny ears and be a swan (because the theme is Wonderland).  I wasn’t sure what Wonderland meant… but apparently it means fairy tale stuff…  I’m going with my sister’s friend Megan, and she’s going to be a flamingo… so it will be cute if I’m a swan, haha.  She made us masks, and they’re the CUTEST things ever.  Mine has white and pink feathers and a beak on it.  Haha.  I just need to add a pink (or white) boa to it and I’m all set.  Fun times.

I know it’s been awhile since I updated.  I’ve just been keeping my mind preoccupied with so many other things that I haven’t really even thought about this blog in awhile.  Anyway… to pick up from my last entry… everything was fine with the heart monitor, so it was definitely just anxiety.  I started trying some relaxation techniques (that Sarah recommended to me) everytime I get an attack, and they work pretty well most of the time!  So that’s good.

A little over a week ago on Friday night I saw Memphis (a musical) at the La Jolla Playhouse with Mike…  I completely fell in love with it.  The lead guy is flippin incredible and I think I have a major crush on him (too bad he’s gay haha).  I was just so amazed by his acting… and I think it’s actually the best acting job I’ve ever seen in a leading guy before (which includes all the many shows I’ve seen on Broadway).  I liked the show so much that I saw it again this past Thursday and I’m seeing it yet again tonight!  I know it’s crazy… but when you have an awesome friend who can get you however many free tickets you want… why not??

Switching topics now… yesterday Alex and I went hiking in Malibu.  We decided to do a 4.5 mile round trip hike to Escondido Falls in the Santa Monica Mountains.  When we got to the Falls… our map said that this was the turn around point for those not comfortable with a “bit of rock scrambling.”  We decided we were perfectly comfortable with a bit of rock scrambling (lol).  Little did we know that “a bit of rock scrambling” should have been called “a bit of mountain climbing.”  Some parts of this trail were so steep that they actually tied ropes onto branches for us to help us climb it.  It was super challenging, but also pretty fun.

HOWEVER… on our way back down we made a wrong turn (honestly we aren’t sure where we went wrong).  While the way we went did take us back down to where we started (at Escondido Falls), we sort of ran into a mishap.  Since we were not on the trail, we ended up running into a mini cliff that dropped down to the ground near where the falls were.  We had no choice but to just slide down the cliff on our asses.  Alex managed this a lot better than I did.  I have scrapes and cuts all over my ass and legs.  It hurt so bad that I actually started crying after.  And we still had to hike back.  What an insane adventure…

I’ve been super busy ever since I got back from my Vegas trip with my mom and Lynda and I haven’t really been in the mood to blog.  I had so much fun in Vegas and I was sad to leave.  We did so many fun things everyday and Zumanity was great of course.  I posted photos on facebook and myspace (links are on the contact page).  I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to upload them to flickr.  I didn’t feel like my trip was long enough and it took us 8 hours to drive back with Labor Day traffic (normally the drive takes just under 4 hours), so I just wasn’t in a very good mood.  I also started school on Tuesday, so things have been crazy busy.

I’ve had 2 classes so far (I won’t start my Monday class until next week due to the holiday) and so far I think I’m really going to like it.  My 2 classes could not be any more different from one another (in terms of structure).  One class has no writing assignments, just a midterm and a final.  The other has no exams and in fact nothing is ever graded (the class is credit/no credit) but there are tons of reading and writing assignments, group projects, and activities.  It’s a class on group therapy, so it makes sense that we would be doing a lot of group activities.  Oh am I going to struggle in that class.  But nothing is graded and the professor said there are no right or wrong answers on the assignments… so how bad can it be?  Please note, I’ve been blogging in greater detail about my classes/overall experience in grad school at Psychofemme.com.  Though, everything from my blogs is automatically crossposted to Livejournal, so if that’s where you follow me, you can stay put.

Time to get back to work…

I’m leaving for Vegas tomorrow morning at 6!  Early I know, but we want to beat the Labor Day crowds and also, Lynda’s flight arrives in Vegas at 10:15 and we’re hoping we can get there shortly after.  Fun girls weekend ahead!  I just had my nails done today and I got them HOT PINK to match the dress I bought yesterday (which I’m sure will be in plenty of my pics from Vegas!

I’m treating this weekend as my final celebration of summer before grad school begins and all the fun stops (because that’s what it is…)  See you all Monday night and have a good Labor Day weekend!

The past few days have been completely insane.

Monday evening I had to finish clearing everything out of my room and the rest of the upstairs. Before that though, I went to Ikea with my dad to pick up my new dresser. However, when we got there I realized that I had a change of heart and didn’t want that dresser anymore, or ANY dresser from Ikea for that matter. So we left, and instead I went out to Furniture Row with my mom to see what else I could find. I didn’t really have much luck because everything was either cheaply made and I didn’t like it, or well made and way too expensive. We went home after about 3-4 hours and I was discouraged.

Then bright and early on Tuesday morning the carpet people arrived to lay our new carpet before I had even finished getting ready for work! They said they would show up sometime between 8 and 10, and usually that means closer to 10 with things like this. But no, they arrived at 8am sharp, and I usually don’t leave for work until about 8:30. I thought I would be fine, but instead I had to frantically finish getting ready so that I could evacuate the upstairs so they could get started.

I went to work… and when I came home around 2:30 they were still working diligently. They finished the carpet at about 5:30 and IT LOOKS AMAZING. I wanted to post some before shots, but the old carpet was TOO gross and embarrassing that I couldn’t even bring myself to take pictures of it.

After they finished the carpet my mom and I embarked for another evening of furniture shopping. This time we decided to hit the bigger chain stores (like Macy’s Home Store, Pottery Barn, and Crate and Barrel). I found so many furniture sets that I absolutely LOVED, but most of them were too expensive. I bought one of them though, from Macy’s Home Store! I decided that I could afford to get something pricier at Macy’s because of the fact that they were having a tax break sale, plus they would give an additional discount if I opened a Macy’s card, AND because they offer 2 years interest free financing! I absolutely LOVE the set I picked out too! I got a dresser, mirror, and nightstand. It’s a darker wood color with a glossy finish to it and sleek chrome handles. OMG it’s SO NICE. All together it came to about $3,000! EEK, I know, but I put $500 down and got about an additional $400 taken off with the tax sale and new card opening, so I was totally able to justify it.

My new furniture is being delivered next Wednesday, so when it gets here I’ll definitely post a picture of the new set along with the new carpet. And I’ll also post a photo of the old set (which I’m going to sell on Craigslist lol) so you all can see what I’ve upgraded from

Things have been so hectic lately what with trying to get the house back in order and all the furniture shopping that I haven’t even had time to keep up with all my internet visits. Not to mention I have a couple new commenters that I definitely need to pay visits to. And now it’s after 12:30am and I need to get to bed. Tomorrow should slow down a little, hopefully!

Earlier today I drove down to Vista to help my wonderful best friend, Ashley, and her fiance with some of their wedding plans. Helping plan their wedding has been such an awesome experience for me because, being as we’re both pretty young, we haven’t really had a lot of experiences with weddings yet. Today mostly consisted of figuring out the wedding favors and designing the invitations, both of which went extremely well. The favors are going to be homemade (by Ashley’s mom) powdered sugar tea cakes placed, along with hot pink tissue paper, in these little white craft boxes from Michaels. The boxes are pre-creased and ready to be folded by hand, which is a task that Alan (the groom) has mastered quite impressively. The dude seriously folded 50 (41 actually, because I folded 9 hehe) of them in less than 30 minutes. (By the way, Ash, just a few minutes ago I gave Alex the tea cakes I took home with me and he said they were awesome which they are!)

Designing the invitations was quite a task indeed (though it was also really fun). From trying to figure out the perfect wording to the perfect font and the perfect colors, it was pretty meticulous. We printed out god knows how many different versions (and on the actual invitation paper too, lol) because otherwise we couldn’t really tell exactly how it would look. The end result turned out FANTASTIC though. But I doubt any of the guests will be as amazed by it as we are haha.

That’s basically all I have to talk about right now. I’m STILL SICK, of course, which doesn’t work for me whatsoever considering tomorrow is Monday and I have to work. Work has been pretty awesome though lately. As of late, my boss thinks blogging is the shit, so I’ve been working on setting up several different blogs for him. He’s currently in the middle of purchasing a bunch of mobile home parks in Mississippi and Alabama, so one of the blogs is pretty much for him to keep track of everything going on with that (for example, he posts entries about progresses with loans, escrow, tenant stuff, etc). I also set up another blog for the Western region (which includes all our properties in California). I think my boss actually wants to have everything we do running on blogs eventually… which sounds really wacko, I know, but the way he was describing how it would work makes me think that it actually might work, haha. We’ll see. Just think though, if we manage to get the majority of our company operating via blog, that would probably earn us an article in the L.A. Times and definitely on the front page of Wordpress.com! LOL.

G’night!