gobsmacked

SB1 has me so seething with rage that I can hardly think straight, but I can't let this go without comment here since it is so important and so close to my heart right now. I am limited to communicating in angry snippets, lest my blood pressure go through the roof, so I will leave it to Representative Jessica Farrar and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to put eloquently what I am currently unable to.

Rep Farrar's closing comments

Open Letter to Texas Legislators from ACOG

Remember this anger when it comes time to vote. The Texas Legislature is not looking out for your best interests. In their arrogance, they are proclaiming to know more about women's healthcare than medical professionals. They are passing laws that 80% of Texans oppose. They are stubbornly refusing amendments that would reduce the already vast amount of suffering that is in store for the women and children of Texas. They are dooming women to agony and death, and babies with abnormalities to short lives filled with pain. If you identify as pro-life you should still be enraged by the lack of logic and the abuse of power. It's disgusting.

Glamping sounds like a weird sex act

Between my upcoming New Orleans trip in September (for Geri's bachelorette weekend I.E THE BEST WEEKEND OF OUR LIVES) and the unexpected extra time off I took post wisdom teeth extraction, I'm skipping an honest-to-goodness summer vacation this year. As always, I'm finding a way to supplement with mini-roadtrips and long weekends, most recently a girlie camping trip with some of my ladies. We ate like queens, ate rum soaked fruit, floated the river, got weird patchy sunburns, one of us had a series of unreasonably good hair days (glares at Liz) and SOMEONE (cough Brandi cough) showed her entire butt to everyone on the Gaudalupe. Like...for a prolonged period. All in all, it was a goddamn blast and should fulfill my summer fun needs for awhile.

Yes it WAS one hot mother out there, and yes it is hard being this fabulous (photo credit Liz Smith)
 

terrible toof times

I'm sure none of you think getting your wisdom teeth out sounds pleasant, but did you know that it's not only unpleasant but it's actually THE WORST? I had a rogue wisdom tooth on the lower left side that would partially erupt then go back in, repeating this process several times over the years, causing some irritation but nothing bad enough that I couldn't procrastinate. Then a few weeks ago it decided just to...hang out back there and chill, making my life kind of miserable. It was time to do something about it, and since the others were impacted I decided to just yank them all out and have it over with. Most of you have probably already had it done, but if you're dumb and waited until you're almost 30 like me, I have some tips for you.

Get knocked out
 I did the IV sedation and couldn't be happier with my choice. The recovery is shitty enough - there's no need to be aware of them spending an hour yanking teeth out of your noggin. Trust me on this. We have the technology. Get whatever drugs they will give you. Last thing I remember is the dental assistants morphing into characters from Where the Wild Things Are. Then I woke up and we were done. Bonus: the drugs have some fun after effects. I was, to put it plainly, high as shit. I drooled a substantial amount of blood onto my dad's driveway but was too stoned to care. In addition to the aforementioned hallucinations, I was just in an altogether good mood. I felt weirdly lovey toward all of my friends who were being super nice even though I know they were thinking I was being a giant baby. A few days later I discovered a beat up toy figurine in my purse. I have no idea where it came from.

Take your drugs
I took my vicodin every 4 hours for the first few days, even setting an alarm in the middle of the night so I didn't miss a dose. This let me stay on top of the pain and I didn't have any pain at the actual extraction sites as a result. I'm now down to a pill in the evenings to deal with the horrible jaw pain I'm having from it being wrenched open for so long. Not everyone will have this problem apparently, but I have a smidgen of TMJ and I think it's made my recovery a lot tougher.


Be prepared for shitiness
This whole process sucks to an extent that I can't thoroughly explain. I have a higher pain threshold thanks to being a woman and a redhead (no really!) but even with the drugs I've had discomfort. I also have numbness in my bottom lip and half of my chin almost a week later, but that should resolve itself once the swelling goes down. The last few days have been more unpleasant in some ways than the days immediately following the surgery, even though I overall feel more like myself. Immediately following the surgery you can expect bleeding and oozing and for your mouth to taste and smell like roadkill. Add to that the constant anxiety about getting dry socket and it makes for a super fun time. I should be out of the woods as far as dry socket, but I can't stress enough to follow aftercare instructions to the letter. Reading some people's account of how it was worse than natural childbirth - well that had me in a near panic in the days leading up to and following the procedure. As a bonus, I'm no longer scared of routine dentist trips because it's all up from here!

You will be starving
I'm having a rougher time than some because I can't open my mouth, but be prepared to stick to liquids for a couple of days and soft foods after that. Since I was paranoid about dry socket I've been very conservative with my food and as a result I've lost 4 pounds. Yikes. This may be a bonus to some but I know I'm losing muscle too and generally feeling unwell so it's not exactly a cause for celebration. Buy Carnation Instant Breakfast shakes because they will save your life.


Anyway, some people bounce back fairly quickly and some have a rougher time than I have, but the bottom line is that I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. Well actually...maybe I would. It doesn't last forever. Does it? Right?! *cries*

Always, Patsy Cline

As a birthday present Greg got us tickets for Always, Patsy Cline (because he's so sweet) and we finally got to go last night. It was a good show but it really underlined just how flawless and inimitable Patsy's voice was.

I was such a huge fan growing up! Fun fact: When I was 6 or 7 I used to march around my aunt's big circle driveway in Beorne listening to my Walkman. Inside there was always a Patsy Cline tape. Partially because it was the only tape I had but also because I loved it so much.

I was a shy kid but sometimes my dad could coax me to sing "Crazy" or "Walkin' After Midnight" for his friends. This went on until I recorded myself once and discovered that, though I could hit the notes and I had some nice vibrato, I sounded like well, a kid. Ha! This really pissed me off because in my head I sounded just like her.

Anyway, moral of the story is that I love her and her music brings me a lot of fond memories. She has some fun, upbeat numbers and some songs that so perfectly capture the helplessness of heartbreak, a feeling I didn't understand then but of course I do by now. I don't know who wrote all of those songs but I do know that they wouldn't have been the same without that lovely, lovely voice.

2 updates in 1 day? Damn I'm prolific.

I recently realized that this blog consists of 4 main topics: travel, cooking, exercise and feminist issues. Those are basically my main interests right now, so that seems fitting. Soooo to keep on topic, here's a pic of some Indian food I made a couple of weeks ago. It was my first time trying my hand at Indian so I was half expecting it to be a disaster, but I was happy with how things came out and I know what to tweak for next time, specifically halving the chicken breasts before cooking and actually measuring the heavy cream instead of dumping it in.

You're looking at chicken tikka masala, a last minute chana masala for a vegetarian guest, and a homemade raita that is simply greek yogurt with minced carrot, cucumber and a dash of cumin. The chicken tikka was adapted from this recipe. I had done a bit of reading that indicated garam masala should be added at the end of the process to protect the flavor and prevent bitterness, so I recommend doing that.

To make things easier on myself, I made double the sauce and divided half to use for the chana masala.  The half I used for the chicken tikka got pureed in a food processor. The recipe didn't call for that, but the restaurant versions I've had are always smooth and creamy and I wanted to replicate that. The half of the sauce reserved for the chana masala was left chunky and added to some sauteed spinach,chickpeas, garlic and ginger. In place of the traditional amchoor powder I used some lemon juice and also added a dash of yellow curry powder. Had I planned ahead I would have loved to have made saag paneer. That'll be happening soon so stay tuned. Well, assuming I live to post about it as opposed to drowning face-first in a bowl of it. What a way to go!

Can I just name this "Update"?

I'm pleased to report that I am finally, FINALLY feeling like myself again. I'm not the bummed-out mess during the winter that this blog makes me out to be, it's more of just a mild case of the blahs. I'm not down so much as restless and a little, well, blah. I expected things to "click" in March, but Timehop was quick to point out that my Facebook posts from a year ago also consisted of a lot of talk about needing a vacation, specifically a roadtrip or weekend in Vegas. I think this can be partially attributed to the fact that all of the hotels/casinos email bomb me with deals this time of year. I never really noticed it until now. I'm so easily influenced and predictable, jeez!

Thankfully, Greg and I did get away for a daytrip to San Augustine last weekend. There are a lot of historic cemeteries there; it was hard to make a dent. Here's a photo of me looking super goth, except for my bright blue clown shoes.

It was overcast that day, but the weather has been sunny and warm for the most part so I'm back in sundresses and sandals - my favorite state. That alone helps my mood, I swear. I also have a lot of fun events coming up, including shaking my ass off with Jenna, a charity event I'm co-hosting, a friend's backyard crawfish boil wedding (is there another combination of words that could get me that excited? I think not), and a dance performance where I will get to see Travis Wall live and in person! Basically, Spring and Summer are looking fanfuckingtastic.

Give me all your free stuff

So every year Allure magazine does this big free stuff blowout in August. As many of you know, I'm a total product junkie, so I will not pass up the chance to try new products. Send something to me and I will slather myself in it without a second thought. I'm not as serious about sweepstakes as some people - there are whole forums devoted to this stuff - but I managed to get quite a few entries in this time and had my best year yet. All I really do is set Outlook reminders and enter at the top of the hour, every hour each workday. I mostly half-ass it and forget about 50% of them, so imagine my surprise when packages started showing up at my place almost daily. Time to brag, because I raked in the following:

Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream - $20
Garnier Fructis sleek and shine serum spray - $6
Nivea creme - $1
Color Club nail polish in In the Limelight - $8
Cerave lotion - $12
Big Sexy Hair Weatherproof spray (travel size) - $7
Clarin Shaping Facial Lift serum - $70
Zoya polish in Bevin - $8
iS Clinical Active serum - $78
Revlon lip butter in Candy Apple - $7
Sally Hansen polish in Pumice - $8
Maybelline eyeshadow in Turquoise Glass - $4
Wet n Wild Liquid Eyeliner in Turquoise - $3
Covergirl eyeshadows in Platina and Ice Princess - $8
Essie polish in Main Squeeze - $8
Olay Regenerist Advanced Anti-Aging treatment - $22
China Glaze polish in Pink Voltage - $5

That comes to a crazy value of about $275! All for taking the time to click a few buttons. I also won a few items that I thought were from this sweepstakes, but must be from other things so I left them out. Oh and I haven't gotten that Covergirl eyeshadow yet but I plan to nag them relentlessly until I do. Most lady magazines have giveaways going on all the time on their websites so if you have a few minutes, check them out (just make sure to uncheck any boxes for trial subscriptions or newsletters or any junk like that). And if you find out who wins the big stuff like $1000 purses tell them I'm jealous. I want to eBay that shit.