It's Not Just Me, It's Actually Science!

A friend of mine who also struggles with tummy troubles (tummy troubles that trump my tummy troubles), sent me this email today about a natural remedy to help the tummy: Peppermint Oil.


Now, I have been drinking peppermint tea almost every night for a while now, and I carry a packaged tea bag with me in my purse.  I noticed that when I drink it it helps me digest, it helps me feel less bloated, it helps me feel less gassy, and it silences all those gurgles that often precede impending tummy troubles.  BUT, I thought it was just me.  I thought that the peppermint was acting more as a soothing agent, reducing my stress and anxiety about my tummy troubles, which in turn was helping reduce the troubles themselves (don't ya just love self fulfilling prophecies?).  I honestly thought after drinking it so often and feeling like it helps I was really experiencing more of a placebo effect than anything else.  Apparently not.  Here's some info my friend sent me via email to back up how awesome peppermint is for you tummy:


"Wikipedia excerpts:

Peppermint oil

In 2007, Italian investigators reported that 75% of the patients in their study who took peppermint oil capsules for four weeks had a major reduction in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms, compared with just 38% of those who took a placebo.^[17] A second study in 2010, conducted in Iran, found similar results.^[18] 2011 research showed that peppermint acts through a specific anti-pain channel called TRPM8 to reduce pain sensing fibres. The authors feel that this study provides information that is potentially the first step in determining a new type of mainstream clinical treatment for Irritable Bowel Syndrome.^[19]

Peppermint tea

Similarly, some poorly designed earlier trials found that peppermint oil has the ability to reduce colicky abdominal pain due to IBS with an NNT (number needed to treat) around 3.1,^[20] but the oil is an irritant to the stomach in the quantity required and therefore needs wrapping for delayed release in the intestine. This could also be achieved by using the whole herb or leaves rather than the volatile components alone. Peppermint relaxes the gastro-esophageal sphincter, thus promoting belching. [and inadvertently causing heartburn!]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the North African drink, see Touareg tea.

Peppermint tea is a tisane (infusion) of peppermint, Mentha piperita. It is sometimes called mint tea. It is naturally caffeine-free. A tea made from blending peppermint and spearmint leaves is referred to as doublemint tea.

Health benefits and concerns

Though there have been no human clinical trials on the health benefits or risks of peppermint tea^[1], some believe peppermint tea has healing effects because of the menthol that it contains. It is said to ease such problems asirritable bowel syndrome, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, headaches. Its minty flavour can take the edge off bad breath. It is also said to control mild asthma, manage stress and ward off the common cold. In some countries, peppermint tea preparations list these proposed effects on their labels.

However, peppermint has properties that may relax the lower esophageal sphincter, allowing the contents of thestomach to move upwards into the esophagus. For this reason, patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease(GERD) are advised to avoid peppermint, at least in theory. On the other hand, precisely because it calms and relaxes the muscles along the intestinal tract, thus reducing spasms, peppermint may have beneficial effects in treating digestive symptoms like diarrhea and colic.^{[citation needed]} Peppermint also seems to be effective in relieving intestinal gas and indigestion."

Pretty cool, huh?  Not too confident in Wiki?  Take this from University of Maryland's Medical Center:

"Peppermint (Mentha piperita), a popular flavoring for gum, toothpaste, and tea, is also used to soothe an upset stomach or to aid digestion. Because it has a calming and numbing effect, it has been used to treat headaches, skin irritations, anxiety associated with depression, nausea, diarrhea, menstrual cramps, and flatulence. It is also an ingredient in chest rubs, used to treat symptoms of the common cold. In test tubes, peppermint kills some types of bacteria, fungus, and viruses, suggesting it may have antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties. Several studies support the use of peppermint for 
indigestion and irritable bowel syndrome.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

Several studies have shown that enteric coated peppermint capsules can help treat symptoms of IBS, such as pain, bloating, gas, and diarrhea. (Enteric coated capsules keep peppermint oil from being released in the stomach, which can cause heartburn and indigestion.) However, a few studies have shown no effect. One study examined 57 people with IBS who received either enteric coated peppermint capsules or placebo twice a day for 4 weeks. Of the people who took peppermint, 75% had a significant reduction of IBS symptoms. Another study comparing enteric coated peppermint oil capsules to placebo in children with IBS found that after 2 weeks, 75% of those treated had reduced symptoms. Finally, a more recent study conducted in Taiwan found that patients who took an enteric coated peppermint oil formulation 3 - 4 times daily for one month had less abdominal distention, stool frequency, and flatulence than those who took a placebo. Nearly 80% of the patients who took peppermint also had alleviation of abdominal pain."

And that's just copying what it has to say for IBS.  The UMMC website goes on to talk about headaches, depression, tension, skin irritations etc.  In essence, this herb is a cure-all.  

Movie Review: Immortals

The other week, Juan and I actually went to see a movie that wasn't in the cheap theatre and was in the regular theatre.  That movie was Immortals.

A story of a poor young man who fights to avenge his mother against the evil forces of his time by taking up ranks with the prestigious warriors of the area, meets a pretty girl, blah blah blah.  Plot = very predictable.  I'm pretty sure without watching it, you already know what happens.  That being said, I was underwhelmed by the story itself.  I was, however, entertained by the great visual graphics and effects.  The hero has that signature 300 washboard stomach and spends a lot of time without his shirt on.  I love movies that blur the line between reality and fantasy, the ones that play on mythology mixed with every day realities, so you can actually imagine it happening in the world we live in today.  Percy Jackson and the Olympains: The Lightning Thief I am in love with right now (I give that movie an A+) for that very reason.  I love Greek mythology.  So I was actually kind of excited about this movie.  So when the story line was predictable, and the gods' outfits were just, atrocious to the point of distracting, the only thing that was really redeeming about the movie was said 300 abs of steel and good graphics.  I would definitely recommend waiting for this movie to get out of the theaters and not paying full price to see it.  If you really want the movie theatre experience, then see it at your local cheap theatre.  I thus give this movie, a B-

Hair Swishing and Holiday Shopping

Yesterday was the open house at the pole studio I teach at.  We did pole demos and offered free pole mini classes.  But the owner and one of the instructors are all crafty and shit and so they brought stuff for people to buy for Christmas gifts.  


I don't have any pictures of me on the pole, because I spent 3 straight hours on the pole doing advanced movements and choreography.  Kind of hard to snap photos of yourself when you're upside down hanging by one hand, or to take photos of others when you're the one teaching for that matter.  I wasn't alone though.  My friend/co-instructor Sara was up there with me the whole time, and after three hours of gravity defying stunts, we are both sore and achey today.  We even got the boys that showed up on the poles and were quite impressed with their strength.  


BUT, I do have pictures of my friend/co-instructor Robin's goodies.  She's the owner and designer for Gilded Cage Design.  Just look at this craftiness!

Her whole table full of goodies

Those little doll heads?  Yeah, she made those into tissue box covers.  I think the flower things are pins.  All hand made with the finest ribbons and vintage buttons!

Wrist cuffs.  Again all hand crafted

Chokers

For a vegan she makes a tasty looking turkey back there

Vintage inspired baby booties!  Also hand crafted.  

I'm not crafty like this, so I brought chocolate chip cookie bars for people to snack on and manned the poles while she sold her stuff.  You should totally check out her website.  She does costume designs, interior decorating, she made a super sassy Moulin Rouge inspired costume for the owner of the studio we work at, she's got amazing stuff.  Check her out!

I Ate The WHOLE Thing

I haven't posted anything in a while because I think there's still a part of me that is trying to crawl out of the food coma I induced upon myself on Thursday.  Needless to say, Thanksgiving was rad.  


I missed my family, for sure.  It's been a few years since I've been able to spend Thanksgiving with my moms and sister.  But that didn't stop me from texting/IM-ing my mom every chance I got to ask about how to make this, and when do I do that.  This was my third Thanksgiving that I've hosted, you'd think I'd have figured it all out by now.  Nope.  Every year I still have to get advice from the kitchen guru that I owe all my skill to.  I've always loved helping my mom in the kitchen, and since she is a superb cook and baker, I learned a lot.  Family dinners were vital growing up, so there's a certain amount of sacredness that I hold when it comes to food and feeding other people.  


That being said, it's no surprise that when I uploaded my turkey day photos that I didn't have any photos of people, and only of the food.  

Ahh, look at that feast!  We had to add our outdoor table onto our nice oak table even after we put the leaf in it to accommodate both people and food.  There's our beautiful turkey and ham, and also my homemade bread rolls and mashed potatoes.  

Here we have our three mushroom stuffing, sweet yams (compliments of the Rosas) with melted marshmallows no top and homemade strawberry bread (compliments of my friend Sara) that is really too good to be true.  

Our fancy decanter (people should get married just to get gifted with stuff like this.  No way would we have bought this for ourselves, I didn't even know what a decanter was until we unwrapped this bad boy) with our red wine.  Juan had a bunch of this, I had three glasses of white wine instead.  

Oh the pies.  I love baking pies.  I hand made the pie crusts and fillings and they were both delicious.  Pie crusts are wonderfully forgiving and easy to make.  Even if you rip a hole in them when you're rolling them out, super easy to patch up, and best part, no one would be able to tell.  


That pretty much sums up our feast.  It was delectable. And the company was pretty freaking awesome to!

Running Day... Something...

This post might be a little boring, but whatever, deal :)


I'm still running.  I did my first full 3miles this past week for the first time in three weeks (thank you sickness).  But I've been doing a few 2mile runs during the week since I got sick.  My 20minute DVDs are all high intensity and a challenge even when I'm feeling 100% awesome, and my easier DVDs are about 40minutes in length, and exercising for more than half an hour while recovering from being sick didn't sound like fun either.  Since I wanted to work out, quickly, but not destroy myself, I've been running.  What?  I want a quick and easy work out and so I do 2 or 3 mile runs??  When did that shift happen?  Holy rusted metal Batman, am I a runner??!


I may not be fast, not by any means, but does being fast constitute being a runner?  I've been running alone with my bouncy running playlist with my faithful (most of the time) canine companion in toe and all of the sudden without my realizing it, running has become my quick and easy work out.  More than that, running 3miles has become my quick and easy work out.  


Two months and one week ago was my first time outside to train for my 5k race that I had in mid-October.  Since then I have had my ups and downs with running from my gait, to my breathing, to my over all will to put one foot in front of the other and propel myself forward with some sort of speed.  I've been bored by it, I've been annoyed by it, I've been disappointed and discouraged by it.  But I've also been elated by it, surprised by it, and enjoyed it.  I've found companionship in it, and when I go alone I can sometimes get "blank brain" moments where all I think about is singing along with the music.  


I may not be fast, I may not ever train for more than a 5k, I certainly don't see any half or full marathons in my future, I don't get "Running" magazine, but somehow, some way, without me even noticing it, I think I've turned into a runner.  

Oh Sazu

I know it's just a picture of Sazu, doing nothing spectacular in particular.  But the more I look at this picture, the more it makes me laugh.  

*poof!*

Holiday Happiness

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I don't know what it is about Thanksgiving, but even all the stress to get family together, the pressure to prepare a decadent feast and have none of it burn and hit the table hot all at the same time, the mountains of dishes, the incomprehensible amount of calories consumed and then needing to be worked off, despite all the stressors, there's just something so cozy about Thanksgiving.  


Maybe it's the good food, maybe it's the company of good people, maybe it's because there's no pressure to have gifts, maybe it's because the weekend is so short, that everyone wants to make each moment matter, or maybe it's just the wine.  Whatever it is, every year I get a tickle of holiday joy and excitement whenever November comes around.  


This year that tickle is less like the gentle brush that gives you a fleeting shiver as it has been in the past years, and is more like a full on tickle fest from the tickle monster.  I find myself perturbed that there are no Thanksgiving decorations out and it's all Christmas oriented (Halloween just passed people...) and annoyed at myself for not buying the Thanksgiving stuff while it was out.  Even the fall decor is being replaced with snow covered Santas and reindeer.  Even with that annoyance though I can feel my heart warm at the Christmas lights and my imagination wanders as I mentally put together my holiday home.  


I find myself wanting holiday flatware, you know, those special plates that you only whip out for the holiday season.  Target (evil, evil place that it is) has these beautiful dark red plates right now that as soon I saw them I thought to myself, "Those would stand out nicely on a forest green table cloth for Christmas."  Such domestic thoughts have never crossed my mind before.  I saw a dark red table cloth and said to myself, "That tablecloth along with those burnt orange place mates will compliment my brown dishes nicely for Thanksgiving."  I actually stopped in the middle of the aisle and looked around me trying to figure out if that sentence had originated from my head.  


When I was in the plate aisle (who walks down the plate aisle unless they need plates??) there were some china sets out and I thought to myself, "It's high time we start putting together our china collection.  Not that I have anywhere to put it all.  We should get a china cabinet.  Ooo!  A china cabinet!"  Then down down the glasses aisle to check out wine glasses (I've broken all of ours except the crystal goblets my sister in law got me that I'm terrified to touch on the off chance my butterfingers drops one) and as I looked at the wine glasses, pondering if I wanted traditional stemmed glasses or the more modern stemless glass, my eyes roamed over to their other kinds of glasses I thought to myself, "Those whiskey tumblers would look great in our china cabinet along side our martini mixing set that we already have."  Again I stopped and thought incredulously, "We don't have a china cabinet!  We don't drink martinis that's why that mixing set is in a cupboard somewhere and we certainly don't drink whiskey so we don't need whiskey tumblers!"  And then that domestic voice said back to me, "But the point of a china cabinet is to display all your beautiful pieces.  Mom has stuff in her china cabinet that they you've never seen them use."  And then I was stumped.  It's true; my mom has a gorgeous china cabinet filled to the brim with beautiful things.  Some of which I don't think I've ever seen out of the china cabinet except to be dusted.  


And so I yielded to the domestic voice and texted the husband and shared with him this odd little voice inside my head asking for things like china cabinets and holiday dish sets.  His response: I'm no longer allowed to watch Desperate Housewives.  His response after I told him how excited I am about making our home holiday-cozy because of this rush of holiday frenzy: We're going to Target on Sunday.  


I've thought about where this is all coming from.  Is it purely consumer driven?  Or is there something inside of me that is ready to start making my own traditions?  My verdict: I think it's 30% consumer driven (let's be honest, most holiday preparation is) and 70% me ready to make my own traditions.  Just like with Halloween, there is something inside me that is calling me to cram our box of holiday cheer full of festive goodness.  I think that urge is coming from a place of, dare I say it, wanting to settle down and no longer looking our rented home (although we have some pretty awesome digs in my opinion) as a temporary place.  Instead, I find myself looking at our place and saying, home is where the heart is and my heart is here, so this is my home (and my heart is also at Target apparently).  That's not to say that my parent's house isn't still my home, because it is.  I grew up in that home and I will always love and cherish it.  But I think I finally feel like I have a home here too.  

Wedding Bliss

Juan and I got invited to one of Juan's co-worker's wedding this past weekend.  It was beautiful.  The bride was gorgeous, the groom was handsome, the venue was dreamy, and the food, dear god, the food was simply to DIE for.  The atmosphere was both elegant yet relaxed, sophisticated yet playful, serious yet full of humor - everything that marriages are made of.  


The venue - The Westin La Paloma.  My night time flash was trying to pick everything right next to me up, instead of going long, and the regular flash was washing everything out.  And since I didn't have a tripod, the no flash option was not an option.  So, damn it all, all my photos are blurry (Dear Santa, may I please get a digital 35mm camera for Christmas?).  

The groom (right) and his best man (left) attempting to look pensive moments before the ceremony

The gorgeous bride as she makes her way to her soon to be husband (that blur is going to kill me).  Her dress was STUNNING

First kiss as newly weds!

To make up for my crappy outdoor photos, I decided to get good pictures of the stuff indoors.  Check out this cake!  Red velvet with I think a hint of brandy.  Delish. 

Handwritten place cards in super beautiful calligraphy, complete with little gems glued to them

There's probably about a billion other photos I could post, but then this post would be insanely long.  My determination to get decent and artsy photos coupled with who knows how many glasses of wine (my glass would get half empty, then a server on super ninja stealth mode would refill it when I wasn't looking and I would look back and go, huh I thought I drank more than that.  I never actually finished a glass of wine, they were just always magically full), equals a lot of pictures of center pieces, roses and candles alike.  


Since my own wedding, I have attended a few other weddings and each one brings up something new for me.  This one brought about long wistful looks to my own husband as I reminisced on our special day that was also full of love and laughter.  It really is quite amazing to watch two people who love each other so completely come together in front of their family and friends and pledge a life together.  Standing up there, in a fancy gown and sharp tux, eating decadent food and sharing cake to toasts of champagne doesn't change the relationship the happy couple has.  But there is something so magnanimous about that outward recognition, of that tangible representation of love that, as my sister puts it, is significant in knowing that your love has been recognized and celebrated by others.


And since pictures can speak better than words: 

Chicken w/ Mushroom Sauce over Rice

It's wet and gloomy today, which of course has me craving for warm comfort food.  I love comfort food.  Honestly, who doesn't love that cozy feeling that goes all the way to your toes and that glow of warm fuzzies and happiness brought upon by good comfort food?  If you don't love comfort food, I strongly suggest that you stop reading immediately and go have a psychiatric evaluation completed.  Like now.  


BUT, comfort food is almost always really high in calories, which is probably why it brings about a sense of mild euphoria during consumption.  So, naturally, we don't eat a lot of it.  Plus, it's Tucson and the need for warm comfort food only happens for three short months.  Not to mention that since comfort food always has a sentimental value to it, I always find myself wanting to buy the best quality of ingredients to do the dish justice.  


But it's holiday season and our financial leash is getting shorter to accommodate holiday gift buying and grocery shopping for our Thanksgiving feast.  That being said, Juan and I came up with this low cal and low budget recipe that has turned into one of our favorite comfort food recipes.  


Ingredients:
chicken breasts
1 can cream of mushroom soup (you can cut a lot of calories and sodium by getting the 98% fat free and low sodium kind)
assortment of veggies (we usually do red skinned potatoes, bell peppers, mushrooms, and occasionally a zucchini)
white rice
EVOO
garlic powder
pepper
cilantro
cayenne pepper


Step 1: Put on your rice.  We have a rice cooker so the rice always gets prepped and started first


Step 2: In a large skillet heat up some EVOO.  While that's warming, cut up your chicken into cubes, and your potatoes into cubes


Step 3: Once skillet and EVOO are warm, throw your cubed chicken and potatoes into the skillet, season with some garlic powder, black pepper and cilantro (you can even throw in a tablespoon or two of some fat free italian dressing) and brown.  While that's browning, cut up your other veggies into bite size pieces.  


Step 4: Once chicken is browned, throw in your other veggies, and cover to let it cook through some


Step 5: Open up you can of cream of mushroom soup and dump that in the skillet.  Now, you can use about 1/4 of the soup can of milk or water (depending on your lactose tolerance) to get the rest of the condensed soup out of the can and thin out the soup in your skillet.  Season with even more garlic powder and also a dash or two of cayenne pepper.  


Step 6: Stir, stir, stir until the soup is completely mixed in with the other goodness, cover and let finish cooking


Step 7: In a bowl, place a small bed of white rice, and top with your chicken/shroom/veggie concoction.  Scarf

You can't really see the saucy soup, but trust me, it's sitting at the bottom of the bowl like great, magnificent surprise for me to devour my rice in.  If you're Juan and love spicy, you can add Sriracha sauce on top to give it a little extra kick.  You can also add copious amounts of mozzarella cheese (omg, cheese!  How I miss thee).  Even still, you can make it into a casserole by making it the same way, but in a 13x9 place down a layer of corn tortillas, then chicken mix, then mozzarella cheese, then more tortillas etc, and bake at 375 for about 15minutes to melt all the cheese.  Mmmm.  Cheese.  Now the cheese obviously boosts the calorie value, but if you can exercise self restraint and stick to 1/4 to 1/2 cup of cheese, and you have the enzymes in your belly to break down lactose, then I say cheese up my friend.  No matter if you add the cheese or not, make it a casserole or a rice bowl, the end result is still a yummy, warm, hardy, comforting dish that is easy on the wallet and the waist line.  

La Luna

I know, I know, it's been a week again since I've posted something.  My excuse is that I'm still recovering from being sick.  Anyways...


La Luna/The Moon.  For some reason unbeknownst to me, I am drawn to the moon.  There are two phases in particular that I often find myself standing outside in the night gazing up into the heavens, wondering, longing, feeling (okay fine, and secretly wishing and wondering what were-animal I would turn into... don't judge).  Those phases would be the waxing moon and the full moon.  I'm particularly drawn to the waxing moon when it looks like the Cheshire cat's floating smile for sentimental reasons.  My mom told me that when I was little and the moon was in this phase I would point to it and go, "Cat mouf moon!"  The "th" sound is a hard one for little kids, but that just makes it all the cuter, right?  Even still, after that moment of sentiment passes, I am still tempted to slam on my breaks in the middle of the road to just stare in awe at the moon sometimes - that pull and intrigue can be that powerful.  Recently, the moon looked like this (it's blurry, I know.  The flash was completely washing out the photo, the nighttime setting was meant for taking pictures of people up close, so I had to go with the no flash):

The picture doesn't do it justice since I was standing in the middle of the street with my camera and no tripod to stabilize my hands.  You can't tell (dammit) but it was cloudy out, the moon had an orange glow to it through the clouds, but the clouds were still thin and translucent enough that you could still see it's full shape.  So that crappy photo that I took is supposed to look like this:

Ah, now it all makes sense.  I did a little research on the moon, naturally, because short of metamorphosing into some sort of were-animal, I was curious to know why I felt so drawn to it.  Here's what I've discovered (the abridged version at least):


Deciphering the moon's meaning has been a task of people since ancient times. Depending on culture, the meanings vary, and each phase of the moon in each month can have a slightly different meaning.  So far, in my very primitive research since I only have time to look this stuff up in spare moments, the universal meaning, however, is that the moon provides the opportunity to unveil mysteries, often dark mysteries that are kept hidden within the shadows.  This can have a very literal sense because, well, the moon is brightest at night, when there are a lot of shadows, and lots of opportunities for things to hide.  But it can also have a human meaning of the shadows that lie within ourselves and our souls, and the moon invites us to walk into our shadowy places with courage to learn about the mysteries that lie there.  More important than learning about the mysteries that lie there, but becoming empowered by the knowledge and wisdom gained by learning of their presence.  


The moon is also a feminine energy.  Women, both in ancient times and today, often track their menstrual cycles in accordance with the phases of the moon, and per Wiccan practice, the ideal cycle is to be menstruating during the new moon phase (when there's no moon).  I don't know why that's ideal, but there you have it.  I haven't found a whole lot on why else the moon is a feminine energy, but typically in creation mythology the sun is masculine and the moon is feminine.  Maybe because the sun is literally a burning ball of powerful hot energy, all characteristics of masculinity, whereas the moon is cooler and calmer, more feminine characteristics.  You hear people comment on the power of the sun and how it radiates down unforgivingly onto people in the desert etc.  You never hear about the intense suffocating powers of the moon.  On the contrary people tend to regard the night and the moon as either calming or terrifying.  Which, my husband would argue, build the basic foundation to all women: that dichotomy of both nurturer and wrathful halves that lie within every woman.  The Goddess Pele, for example, embodies this dichotomy of being both the bringer of destruction with her volcanic explosions, but also providing opportunity for rebirth once the volcano subsides.  (Right about now, Juan teases about how this is proof that women are bipolar by nature... and also right about now is when I smack him, lovingly of course)


So what does it all mean?  Why does it draw me in so intensely?  I still don't know.  Maybe the moon is reminding me to both unveil the shadowy mysteries of my soul and to find the courage to do so through my feminine energy.  Maybe one day I will turn into some sort of animal and wake up naked in the middle of the desert.  Who knows.  Either way, it's an adventure I'm pretty psyched about taking.  

Homecoming

Yesterday as I was crawling out of my sickly grave and writing my first blog post in over a week, I was planning out some of this week's post and had already decided to write about Homecoming this year.  Every year, Juan's BFF Chris (they'll hate me for calling them BFFs, but really, they totally are) along with an entourage of people I have adopted into my family of friends by association come crashing back into Tucson for a weekend of drunken debauchery.  Usually I drop Juan off at the UA to go tailgate and have boy time, then I meet up with them at our favorite bar, watch the game, say about a fitty billion times that I don't drink and won't drink a Jaeger Bomb if put in front of me and then drive people home.  And since Homecoming is but once a year, I get a full 12months to mentally prepare myself for this epic night and it is always way too much fun.  

I'm not even going to talk about the game because the Cats lost to Utah (really?  really, Cats?  This is me being seriously disappointed) and I can't even start to tell you how ridiculous that is.  But, UCLA beat ASU, so there is some justice in the world.  

Last year, Homecoming looked like this:

In summary, my tiny sister in law and I had to carry my ginormous body builder friend to a cab (by the grace of some higher power because he's easily two of us put together and then some) and Juan's liver was completely spent before 10pm so I had to take him home while Juan's sister stuck with the boys.  

This year, Homecoming looked like this:

I feel like the pictures don't do it justice, because we had so much more fun than these pictures make it look like.  Anyways, Juan had to go to a bachelor party so he left the festivities early, so I stuck with the boys along with Juan's sister, Claudia, and my supper hotty friend, Diana.  Despite my dozens of declarations of not wanting to drink (I'm still kinda stuffy, plus I have a study group to meet this morning) a Vodka Sprite magically appeared in front of me, which I milked for a good 2hours then I went back to pounding back the water on the rocks, while Claudia and Diana graciously did the shots that people bought for me.  Thank you girls, you rock.  Then we bar hopped to a place with a dance floor, shook our booties (and can I just say that dancing in jeans and Converse is SO much easier than heels and skirt?), and strategically triangulated ourselves to protect our bulky purses and sweaters that we dropped to the floor in between us all while we danced.  Sobriety thrown to the wind for everyone but me (honestly, try being the sober person in a group of inebriated friends next time you go out.  It's hysterical) I got to enjoy, and remember, the stumbling through drunk speak, professions of friendship of all these past years and various "I love you man"'s.  

I'm pretty sure I'm the only one from my group last night, Juan included, who has been up since 8 this morning.  And despite UA having a tragically painful loss last night, I can honestly say that Homecoming 2011 was a success.  

Love and Other Drugs

No, not the movie.  I haven't seen it yet though HBO has been playing it a lot lately.  The premise sounds enticing though.  


No, the love I speak of is from my family, both two and four legged alike, and the drugs, well, by drugs I mean DayQuil/NyQuil and gallons of hot tea.  


You guessed it, I've been sick.  My first cold of the year.  I should have known it was coming since I just got done telling people that my genius idea of drinking an Emergen-C every day since the start of school was paying off.  I totally jinxed myself.  I've been down for the count since Monday and after being out of commission for almost a full week, I can basically sum up my time in naps, boxes of medicine, 2 boxes of tissue, a raw red nose, dry and cracked hands from all the sanitizing and hand washing, my sister suggesting that I check myself into a hospital in Connecticut so she can learn how to use a suction device  on my sinus cavities, bloody loogies and an over all sense of feeling really, superly shitty.  


I could go into really graphic detail about how gross the last 5 days have been, but I'm still under the weather and not sure if my recap would have the satiric flare it would need to not be just inappropriate and gross.  In short, my first two days of being sick I spent lying on my couch in semi-conciousness with only enough brain power to look up pretty rainbow pictures for a presentation on the LGBTQ population I'm giving.  My third day I could only manage a half day at school and during that half my professor called on me to answer a question and I literally told him I had no idea what the answer was because my brain felt like it was swimming in a vat of molasses.  Thursday was my first full day back in the saddle and Friday was my first day back with the munchkins at my internship, from which I drove home (somehow because I was so tired I actually have no conscious memory of the drive home yesterday), put on my sweatpants and went to sleep until the hubby came home.  


My poor husband is sleep deprived because I have apparently been grinding my teeth like I have rocks in my mouth every night this week; but he hasn't been able to wake me up and roll me over like normal because every night this week I've been knocked the eff out by TheraFlu night time tea and NyQuil so every attempt he made to shake me awake or roll me over was futile because aside from the teeth grinding, I basically die when I sleep medicated.  The dog is about to climb the walls because I've been too miserable to walk her and the simple task of taking a shower is often enough to completely wind me right now.  The only ones in the house who seem completely untouched by my plague of death are the cats, who I might add have completely shirked their kitty duty responsibilities of curling up next to me when I don't feel good to bask in the windows and enjoy their sunshine Malibu spots because the weather is finally cooling down enough where laying in the sun through heat conducting glass won't fry their insides.  I even enticed them with making a perfect little nest behind my knees with blankets and they still ignored me.  


So I guess this post is mostly about other drugs since the only one who could muster any love for me was the hubby.  I can't blame the dog I guess because she has the intelligence and energy of a two year old and while her whole goal in life is to please her humans, her little eye balls are about to pop out of her head from all her pent up energy.  And the cats, well, a true cat person would say that cats are completely self serving anyhow and they were loving me by allowing me to care for them and their needs.  So it's all a matter of half glass empty or full I suppose.  The only thing I know for certain right now is that if this cold doesn't pack up it's shit and leave my body soon I might just have to rip it out of me anyway I can.  I'm done with being immobile and unable to apply my critical thinking skills.  I'm ready to exercise and sweat and hold conversations and you know, breathe in and out through my nose without risk of blowing out or inhaling a massive snot rocket.