I apologize for my brief hiatus. The past week and a half has been a blur.
During the blog’s unofficial awesome week, I was in Orlando visiting my sister. It was quite humid; kudos to the natives for pushing through it. Regardless, I had fun and understand all the hype about Harry Potter Land at Islands of Adventure. I’ve never read the books or seen the movies and I was impressed, so I can’t even imagine the experience of the Potterheads. It was definitely cool.
The day after I returned to CA, my friends and I took a little adventure to Lake Arrowhead for a creative weekend retreat. It was so much fun and I got a lot done; what a great way to ease back into things!
When I got back to Orange County, I had over a week’s worth of work to catch up on and kept it in high gear to push through. I love my staff so it was no difficult thing to return to work, but all the administrative tasks piled high on my desk did not inspire enthusiasm. But I got through it like a champ! Huzzah!
On Thursday, I met with Dr. Fleming at the Orange County Sleep Center to talk about my sleep disorders. For the past 10-15 years I have had increasing problems with my sleep, ranging from snoring, talking, sleepwalking, night terrors and insomnia. I had never really thought to get them checked out- places like this actually exist? Who knew. However, after six months of trying to figure out what was wrong with my heart and why I was experiencing regular abnormalities, my doctor referred me to the Sleep Center.
It was simultaneously frightening and reassuring to know that everything I had been experiencing could be explained by a sleep disorder, including things that take place while I’m awake. It was so bizarre. It was comforting to know that I’m not alone and that something could be done to correct it, but I had a really difficult time imagining a world in which you awaken refreshed and ready to take on your day. I can’t even fathom a day going by without exhaustion, excessive yawning and spiderweb-brain. I couldn’t yet let myself hope for a change, but I was willing to do the sleep study to try and figure out the problem as well as how to address it.
On Friday, I checked into the sleep center for my study, nervous of what I might experience. It turns out I had nothing to be afraid of. The technicians were friendly and calming and although the pressure to perform was high, I felt comfortable enough to try and sleep. I was certainly exhausted, as I am near the end of every week when my disrupted sleep really starts to catch up with me. The tech got me all hooked up to the machines and it was lights out around 9:45pm.
This is where it got interesting. After what seemed like an hour of tossing and turning without sleep, I contacted the tech for assistance. I apologized for not falling asleep and asked some questions about what would happen if they weren’t able to get a sample because I remained awake, and the weirdest thing happened: he said that I had been sleeping, quite a bit actually, and that it was already 5:00am and the study would be ending soon.
I was shocked. It honestly felt like I had been awake the entire time, which I would have guessed to be an hour. Eesh.
So, there’s that. I go back on Tuesday for my results. This should be interesting.
On Saturday, DJ Wanda & I headed to Vista for the Pink Ninjas Iced Tea Party Crop and had no idea what to expect, as this was my first off-site event I’d ever attended. At first, I was really nervous- I don’t do well in new social situations, but my homeslice JWE was right there with me, as usual, so at least we had each other. Traffic was hideous and of course we’re never on time anyway, so we got there a bit late. There were already a handful of ladies at a table and they seemed pretty cozy. We wound up on the other side of the house with two tables to ourselves and I thought for sure we wouldn’t meet anyone new.
Lo and behold, two lovely ladies soon joined our table and turned out to be the best table neighbors a gal could ask for! We had a wonderful time and a lot of hilarity ensued. We were even the champs to stay til the very end, and made some new fantastic friends, to boot!
Ninja Masters/hostesses Ally & Nely were great fun, and made everyone feel extremely welcome. It was a chill day of scrappin’ out in perfect weather, with excellent refreshments, amazing company and great, great fun. Thanks for letting me into your cool club for the day, ladies!
So that’s the word from me. I apologize for the delay in posting. I promise I’ll do better next time!
I’m headed to my hometown of St. Louis on Wednesday for my mom’s 60th birthday extravaganza so I’ll have more stories & adventures to scrapbook. Is it wrong that the first thing I pack is always my scrap gear? hehe.
I’ll have images of some of my latest work up shortly, I promise! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!
