Is this awkward?

Basically, I have taken over being in charge of having my boyfriend take his medicine.  And I am torn over it (oh and this is his anti-anxiety medicine and his blood pressure medicine both of which he takes once a day).

 

Pros:

 

He is total crap at remembering to take it at all and at a regular time each day.

 

When he forgets, he takes a few days to adjust it back to normal which raises his anxiety level, sometimes a lot and then stupid ridiculous things happen like him setting fire to a pizza in the oven (because he thought it would be fine to warm it up in the pizza box under the broiler, it was not fine) as well as him panicking over small things that often make small nuisances into giant disasters.

 

He invents odd science that doesn't really work to explain/justify his spacing of meds.

 

When he is on his medicine, taken correctly he feels better, a lot better (as in not about to panic most of the time).

 

Cons:

 

Dude, I totally feel like his mom.

 

I can be a total hardass about it, and I don't think he appreciates it.

 

Dude, I totally feel like his mom.

 

C'mon, isn't it kind of weird.

 

Dude, I totally feel like his mom.

 

 

Well, and things just become very, very not good when his medicine is not taken.  The doctor has found a good dosage for him, so he doesn't feel hampered by his medicine, and I would imagine that is in part because he takes a pretty low dose at regular intervals and that the blood pressure medicine is a helper at making him feel more calm and relaxed.  And he seems to be at his best self when he is relaxed and happier.  Off the meds he gets kind frantic and things start going wrong and wrong and wronger.  Because he hasn't been on the magic dosage that long (other doses came with there own set of total crap effects), he does still need them.  He is learning lifestyle ways to manage his stress and anxiety but they are all the kind of thing that takes a while to become second nature and super effective.  So for now, I am the medicine drill sergeant. 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

******

Also I was totally going to make today's post about how the city is FINALLY in spring bloom.  They put in all the tulips at the beginning of the month for the Olympic Committee visit, but they were just stalks, and now they are flowers!!!!!  And it always happens over a two day segment which has been the last two days.  Of course in some places in Streeterville and downtown, it happens overnight because buildings and places hire landscape gardeners and their crews to do this and they literally do it overnight or early one morning or one afternoon.  In a snap!

My temporary other blog

Hey, please go here if you want to follow my blogging about the play I am in for the theatre company.

 

http://www.barebonedtheatre.org/villeblog.html

 

I am clearly still getting the hang of this and maybe should take some breaths between my sentances.

Exercise

I forget how good it makes you feel, even when you only do a little bit of it.  I have been staying on track with my wii trainer, and I have been feeling good.  And I do this thing where I decide to [run, do yoga, do pilates, jog, go to the gym, hit a NIA class] on a reasonable basis, and I always dread it and try to weasel my way out of it.  And then I go and do it and feel much better in my daily life whether the yoga makes me feel taller or more flexible or the cardio wakes me up or whatever, I just end up feeling better.  And I am sure there is some science about endorphins or something that explain it, and since it happens every time I should be less shocked by it, but every time I am astonished.  This time though I am trying to make it a life change.  Wouldn't it be nice to feel this way all the time?

 

Oh, I will be blogging for the Ville, the live GLBT soap opera that I am in.  I will post links here whenever one of those posts goes live.  I just finished writing my very first ever, and yes, yes I am avoiding working.

 

Feeling confident

I realized a while back that I had gained weight.  Not the just a little bit, but A LOT of weight.  I had moved out of appropriate for my height and into overweight and then well into overweight.  It had gotten pretty not cool.  Most of my clothes didn't fit.  I had moved from muffin topping to gigantic oven mess that has no name, and even though friends and family still assured me I did not look big, I knew that this was getting to be problematic.  Especially when I started feeling it while walking.  I had slowed down a few speeds not because I was in less of a hurry, but because I was too out of shape to keep up my old pace. 

 

So, I think I have mentioned here that I was going to do something about it.  And then I didn't really do anything.  And then almost three weeks ago, I stopped drinking alcohol.  That meant no glasses of wine (well half bottles) with dinner, no margaritas at mexi places, no two and three french martini nights at the local bar, no extra large vodkas and sprite at howl at the moon (thanks anyway Tony), and no Bailey's nightcaps.  Because well I drank a lot.  No, I mean a LOT!  I took a survey and counted it up, and I was averaging 18 drinks a week, that is almost three a day.  You know how many calories are in that?  Especially when you like fruity sugary drinks?  So yeah.  That is a lot.  And it isn't like I was swapping out dessert or anything else for them.  I was adding it all on. 

 

For the last three weeks I have been trying to replace them with something no calorie, water at dinner, diet coke on weekends or if I want to stay awake, occasionally cranberry juice with a shot of orange, sometimes sprite or orangina or horchata or whatever non-alcoholic tasty drink they may serve at the restaurant.  It was way harder than I imagined it would be.  Not that I have really been tempted to cheat, but it totally sucks to wash down those chips and salsa at a mexi place with water when you really want and icy margarita.  And wine bars, without wine?  Ummm, less fun actually.  Cheese plates without red wine?  Well cheese is still good, but it misses its friend.

 

However, I feel a lot better and a lot more alert most days.  It is a little easier to get up in the morning.  I have also started to work out (but so far only a little), but I have begun to see other results.  Like a pair of pants that was getting dangerously close to being my last pair of pants that fit me and being dangerously close to not even that.  I kind of had to wear them with the right shirt that landed just so, or better yet a sweater that sort of folded up all blousy at the bottom or people would totally notice the too much sausage trying to fit into (or rather bust out of) the casing.  Perhaps that wasn't the best metaphor.  Today, the first time in a week I have worn said pants, they slipped on and have more room in them than before.  They still squeeze in a bit at the waist, but only a tiny bit.  I don't feel self concious about them.  At this rate, if I gear up the working out, and I stay off the booze, and I try to protion control/eat healthier for more serious, I may well have slimmed quite a bit down in time for the big 30 looming just over the horizon of two months and odd days away.

Even MORE pouch cooking

Here is tonight's dinner. A chicken/potato based pouch. Turns out potatoes not fully cooked this way even if they are tiny and red, but we nuked them the rest of the way, and they are even ok this way if you don't mind more raw potatoes. See below for putting it together pics as well as more info about what I made.

Pouch Cooking: pre oven

I was so impressed with the colors of my dinner that I decided I would blog it.



Here is tonight's pouch meal. On the bottom are teeny tiny red potatoes (halved or quartered as needed) and bits of onion that I salted and peppered. Then I added a layer of julienned yellow peppers and on top of that the chicken breasts (each salted and peppered). On top there are halved grape tomatoes, more yellow peppers, some carrots (my other aromatic with the onions), and a bay leaf (because if we are steaming, this could work out well).

Now I am ready to pouch up!

Pouch Cooking: into the oven

Here is my pouch all stapled up (yes with that office stapler) and ready to be put in the oven. The liquid I used was some champagne that was going flat (from mimosas on the weekend), some honey, and some bitters (so I can call this champagne cocktail chicken).

It is actually in the oven as we speak!

cooking

I made my first foray into pouch cooking last night, and even though I kinda screwed some of it up, it was still totally delicious and super easy.  Bascially I washed and cut up some veggies, soaked some couscous for a bit, thawed out some chicken, threw all of the above into a bit of parchment paper, added salt and pepper, dumped some vermouth on it and stuck it in a 400 degree overn for 25 minutes.  Out it came with juicy chicken, perfectly and fragrantly steamed veggies, and sooooo yummy.  I messed up on the couscous prep, and I could've used better veggies (but I had to improvise), but I am soooo doing this again.  Mostly because we have a freezer stuffed with chicken, but yeah.

 

Tonight it is going to have red potatoes and cherry tomatoes in it.  And some other stuff, not sure what.  A yellow pepper?  Onions and carrots?  The chicken, and maybe white or red wine instead of vermouth.  Or vermouth again.  I don't know.  I do what I want.  And I cooked it inside of parchment paper, that I then threw away when finished.  Ok, so not eco friendly, but Heather's approach to dishwashing friendly (ask Chrissy, she will tell y'all, she was my roomie).

 

All in all, I might be addicted.

Thoughts on Miss California

Sooo, Perez Hilton asked a bitchy tough question this weekend at Miss America.  And we are surprised because..?  Did we not know that Perez Hilton was bitchy?  Yeah he asked about gay marriage.  It was a political question, so were some other questions asked.  Miss California answered marriage is between a man and a woman, and Perez Hilton is very open about how he graded her down for it.  This was all over the Today show this morning.

 

They were asking is it ok that Miss America is judged on questions like politics and morality that may be subjective?  I think a better question is, is it okay that she is also subjectively judged by how good she looks in formal wear or a bathing suit (or activewear or whatever bs it is now)?  I think there is nothing wrong with that question.  Miss California seemed to think it not ok that that was why she lost.  Ummm, did she not know who Perez Hilton was?  Did she not know that gays like pageants?  From her answer and her interview, she is a self-identifying Christian of the big yes on Prop 8 variety.  You know the smug God Hates fags, Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve variety.  She stands by her answer (and her God).  Which if she is going to have convictions, she should stand by them even if I think her convictions are bigotry.  But I also think she ought best not be on the Today show bitching about losing.  She knows that answer cost her the crown (or likely did) no one will directly say at camp Miss America, but she also says even if she knew that she would say the same thing.  Well Whoop de doo, then you don't get to bitch about losing.  Like pick one.  Either be a champ for sticking to your bigot guns or or be miss america, but no whining about not getting to be both.  Also, maybe try being a little less of a bigot.  Its fun, ask Perez Hilton.

 

Now I don't know how all my readers feel about gay marriage, but I am all for it.  If individual churches do not choose to consecrate gay vows, well cool that is their right, and I could see where it would be at odds with their foundation or beliefs (kind of like science).  I may not choose to join them, but they are probably fine with that anyway.  I am all for freedom of religion.  Just like I am against tyranny of religion.  This religion has no business in my state affairs.  Quite frankly I feel that a civil marriage is a legal contract not a sacred consecration (thus it is called civil and not like holy or something), and by therefore any two legal adults should be free to enter into it and receive the same protections from the state as any other two legal adults.  The Catholics already kind of get this.  They don't consider a civil marriage to be the same as a church one.  And they need the marriage to be blessed by God and the church to really count.  Umm, other churches welcome aboard this train of thought.  Give civil marriage to everyone or to no one.  Let the churches keep their sacraments out of my government.

 

 

Suggestilbe illness

After Saturday night out with the parents, Sam and his mom were both very sick all day Sunday.  Sam is still feeling awful, not sure about his mom, but I feel fine and so does Sam's dad.  I still feel fine here at work.  Last night I was getting phantom stomach pains, or rather I was convinced any sort of any feeling near my stomach was pain that was the beginnings of what Sam had.  But I was also fairly certain they were not actual pains.  I think part of me just wanted a really good excuse for a sick day.  If I were less totally lazy, it would be awesome to work from home.  However I am realistic about  myself enough to know that working from home would equal not working while at home.  I doubt that is sustainable business model.  Although I do have daydreams where I became a "succesful" romance novel author where I work like 4 hours a day four or five days a week and make enough to not do any other work.  I don't even think I would need to be rich just making what I do now or a little more. 

 

I suppose that if I really think I could make a go at that I should get serious about writing a novel or two.  Right now that business is booming, and they are a business always on the hunt for new authors.  Maybe I should see if I could get one written by my birthday.  Even if it is bad, I could say I wrote a novel before my 30th birthday.  This is a good plan, now I must work on being committed enough to said plan to see it through.  I could start with my Jamie/Paul prototype chapter teaser.

Parents in town (not mine)

Sam's. I went out to lunch with his mom and we hit up the Art Institute's student art show. I didn't buy anything, but probably will try to buy from a jewelry maker I found there in the future (her stuff alone may make me pierce my ears, it is that cool). I would post a link, but I can't find her card offhand.

Then all parents and boyfriend went out to a French bistro for dinner where I had amzing sweetbreads and grilled veggies with cream chive sauce (yummy glands and pancreas!!!) and chocolate mousse with chocolate sauce. After that we saw a set of Monty Alexander at the jazz showcase where the highlight was his trio covering "No Woman, No Cry." Yeah that is right a jazz trio covering some Bob Marley (and Alexander himself is a pianist, so it was a very piano forward cover and totally available on itunes). The best part was, Sam's dad and I both immediately knew we knew it, then quickly knew it was a rock song and famous, then I knew it was Bob Marley, and he immediately knew it was no woman/no cry. Very fun table moment. Sam's mom thought he was a bit too much of a show off piano player, but the rest of us enjoyed it.

Today we did some errand running with his mom. Then we were going to go to restaurant for dinner that we fortuitously discovered was closed before we went there, and we are now waiting for time to leave for our reservation at the Jean Georges Restaurant Vong's Thai Kitchen (yummy tea and noodle dishes await). Then 12th Night at Chicago Shakes.

Pain in my neck

Literally. I have one which I believe to be caused by sitting to much in one position that is bad for it. So. . . I am sitting with my feet flat on the floor, instead of crossed one over the other. I have put my seat and my monitor screen at appropriate Alexander Technique-y heights, and I have tilted the seat to ensure best possible alignment. Next stop lumbar support also massage, sigh I wish. I need to figure out a way to get my insurance to pay for that, also a chiropractor, well at least one of them.

Oh, and hourly get up and move it abouts. But today's real solution may be a shorter day. Going home a bit early to stretch and roll around on the floor in yoga clothes, maybe NIA it up a bit.

Also, Sam's parents get into town tonight. Tomorrow Sam's mom and I are doing lunch and some art. This weekend we will see a Twelfth Night with a huge ass swimming pool as a major part of its set or a high tech Tempest, it sort of depends on ticket availability and if I can get Luke Daigle to get us a discount on the Chicago Shakes tix.

LAUREN AND ZACK were mentioned on TBTL!!!

Because the Brooklyn Tens were having a party, and one of the hosts asked if they heard from Lauren and Zack, the Josts!  But they probably did not go out because Lauren has a bun in the third trimester of her oven.  But, clearly they are far more well known than I, but they went to prom.

 

This post will make no sense unless you are a hardcore ten like myself.

TBTL thanks Me!!!

For help with a segment on kanye west wanting to be a better person after being lampooned by southpark.  Anyway.  It made my rather crappy day better.  Crappy because people at work might need to occasionally give me all the information to deal with a sticky situation instead of just enough information to hang myself.  Awesome.  Only three more hours at work.

Brunch with Old People

That is actually listing in my google calendar for this weekend. Sam and I will be eating at a high rise apartment complex for senior living where Sam will play some paino for the oldies and their families, and I will sit by myself and enjoy Easter brunch. We know the head chef of the fine dining establishment on site at this complex, so that is how Sam got this gig and why we will be dining there free. I also may end up occastionally being a lectern at their church services (it is run by the Catholic church). But the listing cracks me up every single time.

Castle

I really, really enjoy the new Captian Tightpants show even if it has nothing to do with brownshirts or outerspace.  I am glad that Captain Tightpants is back, and he is so charming and wonderful on this show.  Plus I like the chick cop who is tough and yet not so hard ass as she wants to be portrayed.  They do the same old same old crime mystery thing and don't really add too much of a twist on that, but whatever I find formulaic mystery/crime tv really, really comforting even if it is bad.  I mean I enjoy it more when it is better, but I will still enjoy it bad.  It is like my tv Linus blanket.  Anyway, I think this is a good version of it on the sheer charming force of captain tightpant's personality.

 

I also am thouroughly enjoying the newest (now like 16 month old) Jennifer Weiner book Certain Girls.  Very cool, very interesting although I checked it out with the like girliest stack of books.  I got that (which was the least embarassing girly since it actually is a good smart book, but the other two were paperback Georgette Heyer's.  Paperback from when like Harlequinn romance was the only people publishing her in trashy bodice ripping covers (well not really because her books have no trashy, like the most that happens is at the end of the book the hero "embraces" the heroine).  Lately she has been reprinted in good nice copies (some in hardcover that I kind of want to own every single solitary one of because I love them, they make me happier when I open them, much like watching episodes of the West Wing).  Anyway, good books all.  Kind of embarrassing to have checked by the security guard at the door to the library.

Went to be early

Like before 9pm, and holy god did I need it.  I feel much more refreshed now.  Feeling more like I can conquer the world.  Ok, maybe just conquer my neighborhood or my building, we'll stick with that.

Ok, so no scavenger hunt. Most likely.

I mean clearly that was going to cost a lot of money, but I let the lowball "Starts at" price be what I visioned I wanted.  It is not.  It is not sufficient.  Sufficient party would require too much more money to happen.  So, yeah, unless I get inspired to write my own and stage it (ummm, probably not this summer), not happening.  Back to the 30 drawing board.

 

Any ideas?  May be medieval times.  Maybe something else.  I might need to see who plays taste of chicago...

I HAVE U2 TICKETS

Oh and Snow Patrol in Soldier Field to a concert I couldn't go to because I would be in Spokane, but they added and extra day and we will back from Spokane, so I can go!!!!  Summer of concerts!!!!  This and Elton John and Billy Joel face to face.  Plus weddings and bitch barn reunions.  BEST. SUMMER. EVER!  30th birthday notwithstanding (although may have an amazing race style birthday scavenger hunt so who knows that may totally rule as well).

Pillow Fight

I went to one yesterday in front of the Art Institute. It was public and about 40 people and very fun. A few hard whacks, but mostly just gentle giggly swats, but I had to cart my own pillow downtown and back. I highly reccomend pillow fights to all out there in the blogosphere.

Harry Potter Yo Mama Jokes

That is right.  They exist.  Here at the Nerdist.

 

"Yo mama so masculine she makes Dumbledore go DAH-YUM!"

 

and

 

"Yo mama so dumb she thinks Sirius Black is the soul station on sattellite radio"

 

Some of my faves because apparently I am some kind of bigot, or I like their jokes.