the list of things i don't like today plus details

1.  Mice, rats and other rodents that scurry about.

I haven't seen any such creatures in my yard or on my deck near the back door of late, and that is good, because even though there is a river just half a block away and even though my neighbor, the dog-training know-it-all has a huge woodpile by the side of his house that is a perfect rodent condo, those rodents should know that coming on my deck is going to end in them being tricked into going after the peanut butter on the trap, which will only lead to their quick death.  Sorry, but I just can't have scurriers on the deck so close to the door.  Scurriers are always at the top of the list of things I don't like.

2.  Seeing a black No. 3 car racing at Daytona when there is not a Dale Earnhardt Sr driving it.

Watching the start of yesterday's Daytona 500 was disconcerting to me.  I didn't know if I could listen to anymore blahblah from the announcers about the kid who is now driving a black number 3 car who has earned the right to do so.  WHATEVER.  Luckily, there was a nearly seven-hour rainstorm that not only washed the track clean and allowed Dale Jr to win the race, but that pause in the race gave me a few hours to get myself together so I could totally enjoy watching him win while ignoring the kid in the 3 car.

3.  Recognizing a pre-migraine aura late this afternoon.

Yes, pre-migraine aura I appreciate the warning signal you are.  The notice signalling that I need to get some advil stat, head to a darkened room, find a quiet spot.  But I'd like you waaay more if you were associated with unicorns or fairy dust or rainbows.  I mean, really, just say it--aura--doesn't that sound like a good, warm, fuzzy, desirable thing?  Yes, yes it does.  Except when you tack it onto pre-migraine.

to do list

haircut - check
Cafe Rio and visiting with girlfriends - check
skiing with Jr - check
taking dinner to mom & dad - check
using Kohl's cash online - check

Sometimes I am so very productive.

this explains so much

My friend, Lisa, is friends with Ann, who recently posted this link on her blog.  thank you, Lisa, for linking to Ann's blog.  it is great!

This explains so much about GusGus.  When we/I picked him up from the Humane Society, they said he was either from California or Phoenix.  Now I know why he behaves the way he does.  He was part of a pack of feral chihuahuas in Phoenix.

Thinking he was once a wild thing living on the streets of Phoenix gives me a new perspective about him and might help me cut him some additional slack.  He really is a crazy wild dog.

Although I haven't yet figured out how his circus skills fits into this whole scenario.

stop being so freaking earnest

That woman announcer for the women's skating during the Olympics is driving me crazy with her SO.VERY.EARNEST COMMENTARY.  I don't know her name, but if anybody asks, I want her to stop talking now.

Please.

That is all.

some things

Just a couple of things.  Or maybe three.

First, zumba update.  Vanessa, the teacher I really like, wasn't at class on Thursday, so I went to Charlie's water aerobics class instead.  I didn't think I wanted to go if Sara was going to be teaching zumba because she does so.much.hip.hop.stuff, and I usually end up thinking I'm way too old for that hip hop stuff.  Going to water aerobics was a bit of a mental challenge too though because I had this idea that it would be a class full of gray-haired chubby old women, and obviously, that couldn't be me. 

Yes.  Apparently, sometimes, I'm that judgey. 

But I'd been to a class that Charlie taught (as a substitute), and it was pretty fun and a great workout, so into the pool I went last Thursday, and it was, as before, great, and full of not old chubby women, but mostly men of all ages.  Who knew men do water aerobics?

Along comes Monday, Vanessa's next scheduled class that I go to, where I discovered that Sara was again substituting for Vanessa.  Bummer is what I thought.  But since I was there, I found my usual spot and waited for class to begin.  Because, yes, I have a usual spot now.

Sara fired up the music and started warming us up and than--whoa--something happened in my brain.  I found myself just letting it all go, and there I was, moving my biggest hip hoppy moves ever.  I don't know how I looked, but it was another great workout, and from now on, I'm going to do zumba the same way I do crafts.  My craft projects never looked like everybody else's craft projects, but they are mine.  And that's my new zumba philosophy, doin' it my way, and I'm okay with that.

Second.  We've been watching a bit of the olympics lately and every time I see those skiers doing those big jumps, flipping and twisting and flying, it reminds me of a recurring dream I have where I'm on a huge swing, swinging back and forth, higher and higher and then I jump out of the swing and that's when I realize I am up waaaay to high to expect to land safely on my feet.  I always tried to convince myself I could land safely if I just kept myself slowly floating to the ground, but I always woke up before I landed.  Not sure what that dream meant or if it's a good idea to share dreams on the internet.  But there it is.

And last.  Skiing.  Jr and I went to Alta last Saturday.  It was overcast but warm for winter and even though the lift lines were long, it was still such an awesome ski day.  I'm pretty sure that if we'd done another run or two I'd have stopped the snowplowing and moved totally into the parallel skies form.  Course, I also might have just fallen on my butt or crashed into a snow bank at high speed--but there's still several weeks of good snow and we're going back.  After seeing all of the little kids skiing with bungie cords on their tips to keep their skies going the right direction, Jr got this idea that he should attach bungie cords on the backs of my skies to keep me from snowplowing. 

Uh, sorry, Jr, but no way. 

I'm going to figure out the skiing just like I figured out the hip hop zumba.  Just a few more runs.  You'll see.

new pathways

So I've been going to zumba since October 28.  That's just over three months.  While I'm still so very far from moving like the instructors move, at least I'm starting to recognize some of the music and some of the steps are feeling familiar.  (Probably not ever going to look like this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHfpZDBE2c0.  She's so good.) 

But the weird thing is that now, whenever I hear music, my body starts thinking about moving to it.  I hear and visualize zumba dance steps all of the time now, even though I'm not listening to songs that we work out to in class. 

It's like my brain is trying really hard to help my body to not just feel the beat, but to move to it.  C'mon, shake that butt, skip some more, shimmy girl.

I think this is very cool.

This morning I broke out the Rosetta Stone and started learning Italian.  Italian and Rosetta Stone are also pretty cool.  Lots of different methods of learning in each lesson.  My favorite so far is the game where there are a bunch of pictures of things you've been exposed to during the lesson and there's a voice that says what they are in Italian and you have to double click on the picture that matches what the voice is saying.  Matching was always my favorite kind of test. 

My least favorite part is when you have to type in the correct word or phrase.  I'm no better at that than I am at zumba shaking moves.  I might be better at zumba moves. 

But I suspect, if zumba or college are any indication of what I can expect, soon enough, I'll have Italian floating around in my brain and my mind will be talking to me in both English and Italian.

And in zumba.

This feels a lot like being back in school, in particular that semester when I was taking labor economics and calculus.  It was like learning too completely new and different concepts with new languages and new everything.

So.  I'm learning new stuff, mentally and physically.  This feels good.

great news

Okay.  So the California trip was super fun.  Included a trip to the beach and some babysitting time and lots of pancakes and delicious dinners and hours and hours with Jessie.  Perfect.

I was feeling the usual sadness after being left behind at the airport, until I remembered that there was going to be a party at my house when I got home, a party with all of the locals, including the new baby boy, who keeps getting cuter, which I cannot even explain because he is so cute already.  It makes no sense and yet perfect sense somehow.

My flight crew was on top of their game and got us home nearly 30 minutes early.  Or maybe there's a storm blowing this way.  Whichever.  Arrived home just in time for the big super bowl party, which was, let's just say, better than the actual game although it was super to watch Denver lose again.  Obviously.

So all of that was good, but then today a really great thing happened.  I called our internal medicine doc to see if I could get in to see him sometime to talk about these worrisome apparently not-hear-related episodes.  They got me in at 3:20 this afternoon, and I'm tellin' you, that guy is a genius.  Or he has seen a lot of patients in his life.  Either way.  After I described my symptoms, he asked me if these little attacks occurred after eating, which they haven't.  Then he told me that there are only two things that cause the type of pain or weakness or heaviness I've had in my chest and arm and neck and shoulder and back--that is, two things with those symptoms that ease up when the patient takes a nitroglycerin tablet.  And since I've successfully passed both of my stress tests, we can rule out one of the things--heart issues.  Which leaves only the other thing--esophageal spasms. 

Of course--why didn't I think of that? 

Because I'd never heard of it, that's why.  But he said it's actually fairly common and if it were happening regularly, daily or every few days, he would recommend I take something to reduce the acid in my stomach because I would likely have gastric reflux.  But instead of reflux, my esophagus freaks out a little bit and spasms, which causes the pain in my chest, neck, shoulder, back, and arm.  The nitro is very effective at easing spasms in the esophagus and the heart.  It doesn't help for strokes or irregular heartbeats or much else, but it works for these spasms.  And since they occur so infrequently, it doesn't really make sense to take something for the acid, but it does make sense to use the nitro if I need to.

So there you go.  I'll carry around a little bottle of nitro just in case, replace it every six months when it loses its potency, and everybody can stop worrying about me falling dead suddenly.

This, this, is the best possible diagnosis.  This doctor is awesome.  He knows his stuff.  I couldn't be happier.