Here’s a question for you?

When you are getting a massage, manicure, wax, haircut, etc., how do you tell the person providing your services that you don’t really feel like talking? (FYI Jill, I loved talking to you, I just don’t like talking to strangers that much)

It’s something I wonder about every single time I go into for “services”. When I’m paying $100+ to have my hair done, I feel like I should be able to sit in the chair and read trashy magazines without having to participate in conversation I don’t really care about. Except I feel like it would be rude for me to say “I don’t really feel like talking to you right now.”

I’ve heard of people bringing their ipods an keeping them in, but that seems kind of immature to me. Don’t you think it’s a “teenager” thing to seem unable to disconnect from a media source?

Are you like me? Or do you enjoy the conversation?

I love my birthday, and I plan on loving it with no reservations for the rest of my life.

That Husband does not like celebrating his birthday. He doesn’t even like thinking about it. He doesn’t like getting presents, and he only likes to give e-cards when it is someones birthday. That’s the way he did things until he married me.

Somehow I was able to convince my e-card loving husband that my birthday was something worth celebrating in a big way. I convinced him so well that tonight we are kicking off the first part of four gift giving events. Gifts include one dinner, two practical gifts, and one frivolously lovely surprise. The frivolous gift will come on my birthday (April 15th), and the dinner is happening tonight!

I don’t know where we are going, but I know it’s fancy enough to warrant dressing up, curling my hair, and dabbing some perfume on my pulse points.

Kelli Nicole was here this week and we did headshots for each other. Somehow we were able to find a wall that matched my outfit perfectly! I’ll post more of these next week. Enjoy the beginning of your weekend!

I tend to avoid these because I have so many other things I want to say, but I thought this one from Peonies and Polaroids was too lovely to pass up.

One picture, one poem, one song, one quote, one item of clothing, one place and one Disney princess.

One Picture

by d’art photographie

One Poem

Introduction to Poetry

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Billy Collins

One Song

One Quote

My comfort is that old age, that ill layer-up of beauty, can do no more spoil upon my face. Thou hast me, if thou hast me, at the worst, and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better.
.-Henry V, Shakespeare, Act 5, scene ii

One Item of Clothing

JCrew (Where else?)

One Place

I miss the frozen yogurt and my best friends, all found in Utah (and Boise! ).

One Disney Princess

I loved her then because she had brown hair and loved to read. I love her now because she is kind and has the kind of library I dream of having myself one day.

I’m back from wearing the largest pants that have ever been placed on my body in a building where I was completely surrounded by Dallas Cowboys paraphernalia. I went to Blue Star Imaging on Cowboys Pkwy, so I guess I should have expected it to be THE place for all of the Dallas Cowboy imaging needs.

The sun was shining right behind my head the whole time I was in the machine, so claustrophobia wasn’t really an issue, just an overwhelming desire to move. Staying still for long stretches of time isn’t really something I am good at (see this post for further proof).I just kept reminding myself that moving might mean being in there even longer, and that would be some of the worst news the technician could deliver to me.

Oh and she gave me headphones and I listened to the Fray, that was nice. Also I’m not wearing a bra in this picture. (TMI?)

Everyone has been really kind, wishing me luck and saying they would pray for me. You are all so kind. I didn’t expect anything like that since it’s just so normal for me to have this pain now, you know? It would be like if you said “I’m going to the dentist today.” I wouldn’t wish you luck for that, because it is normal. All of this feels so anti-climatic for some reason.

I hope to get in to see the Dr. on Thursday, so I should have some answers to share with you by Friday. I don’t really know what would be good news at this point. Surgery? Months of PT? Acupuncture?

I haven’t talked about it much here on the blog because I wasn’t sure how to bring it up. I’ve been suffering from lower back pain for somewhere around 18 months now, and today I’m getting an MRI to see if I can finally get some answers.

The pain started about 16 months ago or so, confusingly, on the opposite side of where it hurts now. It was a pain in my lower back, that would sometimes radiate down the front of my right hip. I’m usually the type that sits in the back of the class, but I started staking out seats at the front so that I could stand if I needed to because the pain was the worst while sitting. After several months of dealing with this I went to the physical therapist a few times, but I wasn’t consistent enough to see any results (or the PT wasn’t helping, I’m still not sure which is true).

School ended and I moved down to Dallas. The pain subsided a little bit over the Summer, and then, confusingly switched sides a few months before the wedding. All of the sudden I wasn’t complaining about the right side, it was the left that was hurting. And the pain was never in my lower back, it was the hip.

Where is the pain located in your hip?, The physician asks me.

It’s in the middle, I reply

It is impossible to have pain right in the middle of your hip. they say.

I know, I sigh.

Since the wedding, the pain has become much worse. It not only feels like it is residing in my hip socket, but also radiates down my leg. A friend sent me a link with a graph that describes the pain perfectly.

I now have a hard time standing for more than 5 minutes at a time. Shopping at Costco is an absolute nightmare (I still go, but I want to cry by the time I get to the checkout because the pain is so bad) I can hardly sit on the couch. I always dread going to the Post Office because the line is so long and standing for that long is so difficult. Sometimes I have a hard time sitting down at all. I can’t sit, I can’t stand, so I lay. I sit or stand for too long and so the pain continues even when I relieve the pressure by getting in bed. Extending my foot to engage the clutch on my VW is awful, although I’m not sure why, it just is.

I can’t remember a pain-free day since November.

The Dr. recommended Physical Therapy, but after dropping $1000 for several worthless Chiropractic visits, we want some answers before we doling out the money for potentially worthless procedures once again. After our insurance company confirmed that we would only have to pay $100 for an MRI, we decided to go for it. It’s likely that I’ll end up doing PT after all, but at least they will know exactly what the problem is while they are working with me.

So today at 4 pm I’ll be entering a giant magnetic tube and holding very still for what will likely feel like a very long time. I have issues with this (the holding absolutely still in small spaces), but I’m just grateful there are no needles involved. I’ll ask them if they will take a picture, but I doubt it will happen. I’ll keep you updated on the results as soon as I have them myself, hopefully I get a few answers out of this, and some suggestions for treatment that will lead to pain-free days once again.

P.S.-I realize I’m going to get lots of suggestions for acupuncture, alternative medicine, your cousins-best-friends-uncles-father-in-law here in Dallas, etc. I’m pretty happy with the approach I’m taking right now, but if several months go by I’ll be back here posting in frustration once again, and you can suggest alternative approaches to your hearts content and I will read an consider each and every one of them!