it’s not about you

So a couple of nights ago, Joshua and I went out to eat with my family. After dinner, everyone came back to our place to help us eat all the brownies and cookies we’ve collected during our travels (P.S. - please, no one bring us any more coffee. We love all of you, but really, take a break with the coffee. I think we have seven pounds worth).

Just before everyone left, I felt a tightening in my back and started having trouble stretching my muscles enough to take deep breaths. Joshua thinks between the stress were under (we’re moving in FIVE days!!!) and the fact that I spent the day leaning in and out of bins and sorting clothes and toys and things, that I put too much stress on it.

We got in bed and he gave me a massage. I had a hard time going to sleep and was up til almost 2:30. I didn’t sleep well and when I woke up in the morning to go to the bathroom, I could hardly stand up. Rolling over in bed was excruciating. I managed to get to the bathroom and do my thing, but it took forever to reach back for the TP. I couldn’t turn my head or anything. I couldn’t move. I got back in bed and told Joshua how stiff I was. He made breakfast and brought it to me in bed. I couldn’t look down at my plate - I had to hold it up to eye level. It took everything just to bring the fork to my mouth.

I have never had anything like this happen before. I couldn’t get out of bed til almost 11. I began trying to stretch my neck and back. Slowly, it began to get better. I feel like if I try to describe how much pain I was in, people will think I’m exaggerating, but Joshua had to help me sit up - I couldn’t do it myself - and even then it hurt like hell.

He ran me a really hot tub and helped me into it. I took two Advil and laid in the tub for a while and things loosened up much more to give me some mobility.

(Aside - it’s 12:30 in the morning, and a few minutes ago we heard the pop pop pop of gunfire, about five or six shots (and people worry about us living is SF!). now we hear sirens wailing. joshua says he hears gunfire a lot after I go to sleep. and to think we live on Swiss Avenue)

I made it up to the birth center to have lunch with everyone after tour and was waiting in the front office with Jenny and the new girl, Dara (hope that’s how you spell her name!), telling them how crazy my morning was and how unbelievable my back was. Then Dara says, “You know, I used to be a massage therapist. Do you want me to work on your back?” How do you say no to that? She worked on my back for 10, maybe 15 minutes. I felt so much better after that.

I woke up this morning, to a bit more stiffness. Big props go to Bethany, who brought me coffee, and packed all our books and our dishes, and to Angela, who packed Judah’s toys, helped us sort lots of things, and offered some good advice.

(more sirens)

I’m feeling much better. About my back and the state of our packing.

I’m trying not to panic at this point. Breathe in, breathe out.

If you like to pack things, like Tetris, or are a good organizer, please call me and then come over and help me pack boxes. For the love of all things sacred. And bring some boxes with you when you come.

We got back in town yesterday from our whirlwind trip to Austin, San Antonio, Austin and Waco. I have felt like hell for the past two days. I’m tired of throwing up. I had to take Judah to a friend’s house today so I could take a phenergan and sleep this afternoon. At this rate, we’ll be just throwing all of our stuff into the U-Haul, unboxed.

The one time I felt bad enough to take a pill while I had Judah, I laid down on the couch for “a few minutes,” and the next thing I know, I’m waking to Judah saying, “Uh-oh, Mommy!” That will wake any mother in any comatose state instantly. We are trying to potty train her and she had peed on the floor and was taking all her puzzles off of the shelves and throwing the pieces around the apartment. Oh, and her books too.

So if you’d like to hang with me and Judah, we’ll be happy to let you help us pack. Or you can at least tell me when to exhale.

via the Washington Post.

This is unbelievable. At least Richard Land finally says something worth listening to for the first time in years.

Yesterday was my last day as an employee at Birth and Women’s Center. I am now officially unemployed.

I worked there for two and half years, which is the longest consecutive time I’ve ever had one job (I worked at Starbucks for about that long, but it was broken up into two different chunks, separated by a year and a half in between - and they were completely different work environments). It’s kind of sad to go, but it’s exciting at the same time, because it means that we are going after are dream of moving to San Francisco. We leave in two weeks. If anyone can hook us up with some boxes, please let us know.

So we’re in Austin this weekend. If you know us and would like to see us, give us a call or drop us an e-mail. If you don’t know us and would like to see us, we might just be so inclined. We’ll leave on Sunday to go to San Antonio to see Joshua’s family. Sometime on Monday, we’ll come back through on our last trip to go to Waco and spend time wth his parents, so we might could stop and have lunch or coffee in Austin if we don’t get to see someone before Sunday. Let us know. This is your last chance!!

via The New York Times:

“But Representative Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat, took up Mr. Lantos’s question later and asked if Congress ought not be ashamed itself, for having granted China trade status as a most favored nation. Mr. Wexler said that it was “duplicitous” to blame the companies for doing what the government had legally sanctioned them to do, and that the firms were in a “no-win situation.”"

Okay so Congress is trying to make the case that by doing business in China according to Chinese government standards, these companies are creating a human rights issue. Maybe, but I’m not convinced. I’d love to hear your take on it.

What kills me is that THIS is what the government decides to take a stance on for human rights issues. In CHINA. You have to be effing KIDDING me. How about the fact that we import toys and clothes made there by people for PENNIES A DAY, as an example? How is THAT not a human rights issue? If the government wants to makes human rights issues out of things, then why not have some consistency?

What makes this so ridiculous is bringing human rights into it. It’s hardly credible considering all the human rights violations our goverment makes. Please.

via the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Nearly 1,000 people drawn by Internet postings and word-of-mouth converged near San Francisco’s Ferry Building on Tuesday night for a half-hour outdoor pillow fight.

The underground event erupted at 6 p.m. in the center of Justin Herman Plaza with a mass rush of shrieking, laughing combatants — many of whom arrived with pillows concealed in shopping bags, backpacks and the like.

Within minutes, pillows were arcing, feathers were flying, and by the time the Ferry Building’s clock tower clanged the half-hour, the plaza and hundreds of people were covered in white down that gave the scene a wintry lustre.”

M&M’s wil be making pink and white candies to help support the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Fifty cents from each bag will go to the foundation. If we all buy one or two bags… Buy one for a friend!

Glade Plug-Ins can burn your house down. Be careful.

so I’m blogging this post from my new computer, a 14-inch ibook that we bought last thursday after my G3 powerbook finally died.

i feel guilty - like i’m betraying an old friend. I’ve had the same computer since December of 2000 when I graduated from college. Over the past several months it had begun to have problems — the batteries wouldn’t hold a charge anymore and I had to keep it plugged in, it stopped supporting itunes and photoshop, it stopped supporting my microsoft office suite, the dvd drive has a mind of its own…. it got to the point where all i could do on it was check e-mail and surf the internet, and even that was s.l.o.w.

joshua did an update last week and that was that. it was done. so we went to the apple store. god, i hate the apple store. its always packed and there are tons of employees everywhere ready to make you feel stupid about your lack of knowledge. i prefer to NOT have someone i don’t know dressed like steve jobs help me with my inadequacies. i’d rather let my husband do it. so we looked at laptops, trying to decide which one would best suit my needs. i was going to get the 12-inch, but we thought the 14-inch would be better for photo editing. we didn’t get the powerbook because we figure by the time i am doing enough to justify the extra features, i wil probably need a new unit anyway. but i can finally use itunes and iphoto and photoshop and write things and edit photos, which means as soon as i can figure it out, i can blog photos.

so here it is. it only comes in white. i wish you could choose your own colors. we designated the old computer as judah’s. she’s the only two year old I know with a powerbook. joshua rigged it so it only plays dvds, games and get on the internet. that’s about all it CAN do.

so daddy has a “silver c’uter, mommy’s white c’uter and judah’s black c’uter.”