sleep study and my relaxing weekend

on tuesday i had to do my sleep study that my ear, nose & throat doctor ordered because he thought i had sleep apnea. i was dreading the study because of how ridiculous it sounded. the paperwork they sent me said they would be shoving tubes in my nose, wires all over my head and whatnot. i couldn't imagine being able to actually sleep there. i arrived at the avenue hotel where they have a lab on the 15th floor. they showed me to my room to fill out a bunch of paperwork and after about an hour they came to hook me up to all the wires and told me i couldn't move for the rest of the night. they put some by my mouth, my temples, all over my head, behind my ears and on my legs. they attached the wires with a toothpaste like substance which was pretty gross. i felt like a robot hooked up that way. i watched tv and did a crossword while i was all tangled up in these wires and eventually passed out. i had a hard time falling asleep and woke up about as often as i normally do throughout the night but i slept ok! in the morning they came in to unhook me and told me i did not have sleep apnea but the test results should be able to tell me how deep i was sleeping and what caused me to wake up so much. overall, it was an interesting experience but i'm glad i got it over with!

i took the next day off to recover from the crappy night of sleep. i came home around 7 a.m. and fell back asleep for a few hours and when i woke up, i began my laziness marathon. i watched hours of instant stuff on my netflix and then i went to the aquarium downtown. it was terrible weather so it was nice and empty and i got to check out lots of animals. afterwards i hopped on the metra to head to my parents. when i got home i ran to the mall to get some christmas gifts and then came home for dinner and quality time with my parents. the next day was thanksgiving and it was really nice to have everyone together. thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because i have so much to be grateful for and i love food! the next day i slept in nice and late and laid around for hours. eventually made it to the grocery store and then i went out with my friends ryann and caitlin later on. saturday, i slept in yet again and we eventually went to bobtail for ice cream and then ran some errands. then we did absolutely nothing, even napped! and later we went to a concert at lincoln hall. today, slept in AGAIN and did brunch at julius meinl which was fabulous. we hit up some shops nearby and then came back to my place and did a nice serious cleaning together. and now we have time to finish our weekend as lazy as it started. i can't remember the last time i did this much laying around. i felt guilty some of the time but i just simply didn't have anything i had to do! most of my friends were out of town and i am broke from all the christmas shopping so laying around was all there was to do! on average i got about 9 hours of sleep every night since wednesday and i've watched about 7 movies and spent a million hours on the couch. the bags under my eyes have gone down and my eyes aren't as red as they usually are. i definitely needed this!

free time freak out.

i'm so not used to having free time. i usually have every hour planned out and allotted for a particular task or activity. i like being busy. i am more productive when i'm busy. i've always had a hard time relaxing and sitting still. i can't just sit and watch movies or read a book. i have to do it at the same time or make cards, scrapbook, clean or do emails. i'm the queen of multi tasking. when i sit on the couch i often just perch so that i'm ready to get up and do something right away. i know, i have a problem. of course there are times when i can just kick back and totally veg out but they are few and far between. now that school is over for 6 weeks and there is a lull at work until bball season picks up, i'm going to have a lot of free time. this weekend for instance - i don't have anything i HAVE to do on saturday and sunday during the day. this is completely foreign to me and it's actually a little unsettling. it makes me think i'm forgetting something. i wrote out a big to do list of things i could do but nothing is super pressing. everyone keeps telling me to just enjoy it. but i honestly don't even know how. i feel better with a plan. so this is my plan for tomorrow.

* Sleep in

* Watch my netflix in my pjs

* Finish my arts & crafts

* Drop off donations

* Nap at some point

* Go out with my girlfriends

i can take it easy and still have a plan!

Medical Mayhem

about 6 months ago i found out that i had a deviated septum. i knew something wasn't right because i always had a sinus infection and almost always had sinus pain - so i wasn't too surprised when they told me it was messed up. i wasn't a huge fan of the doc i went to at first so i tried a new one out this fall. i really like this one! i told them i wanted to avoid surgery if possible so they gave me steroids to help with the inflammation, ordered an allergy test and a sleep study to find out if there was another way to treat my issues. the steroids are definitely helping my breathing and i haven't been as tired as usual. i just had the allergy test on friday and that's where the mayhem comes in. they were asking me TONS of very specific info and i just simply didn't know the answers. i did my best and i got through the 40 minute q&a session and then they started the actual allergy test. they locked me into a chair and did 14 drops of various allergens - grass, ragweed, mold, dust mites, dogs and they even had one for gerbil! i reacted to dogs, cats and very badly to dust mites. i had to sit there and watch my arm inflame and get all itchy and not touch it. no fun. then they shot a few other things into my other arm and i had a very serious reaction to grass. so i'm allergic to dogs, cats, dust mites and grass. afterwards they chatted with me about what to do next. they suggest that i get covers for my pillows and bed and wash all of my bedding in hot water once a week, do netty pot 2x a day when i start to feel sick, use another nasal spray when im feeling sick, keep my windows closed to avoid grass issues, stop fostering cats, never get a dog. YEAH RIGHT. i mean, i don't want to feel sick anymore but there's no way i'm going to do all of that. i don't even have time to brush my hair half the time let alone do a netty pot 2x a day. and they also want me to call them when i get a sinus infection rather than my sinus doctor. does that make sense??? no! so basically i'm not a fan of the allergist. next week i have my sleep study. my sinus doc thinks i might have sleep apnea so he wants me to get tested. i got a packet of information and a survey to fill out about my sleeping habits. in the packet it says that they will be putting sticky patches in my hair and on my face, plastic discs in my nose and a finger prick thingie on my thumb. they said if my oxygen levels are low they might wake me up and put a breathing mask on me in the middle of the night. and they seriously expect me to actually sleep like i normally do!? hilarious. after i get the results from the study i have to go back to my sinus doctor to figure out next steps. i'm just feeling pretty overloaded with mixed messages and too many doctors appointments. currently, i have a chiropractor, a lady doc, a dentist, opthamologist, a general doctor, an ENT and an allergist. it's TOO much i just want to feel better. i am very grateful to have insurance and have the opportunity to try to feel better. i'm just getting a wee bit overwhelmed. hopefully after the sleep study i can call it quits for awhile!

girl's weekend!

my best bud tara won a free weekend in a cabin in galena and she invited and she invited me and a bunch of our other girlfriends to join her last weekend! we had a great time catching up, drinking lots of wine, eating lots of junk food and making friends with the locals. some highlights were:

* getting taco bell on the drive down - mmmm nachos bell grande!

* girl talking and drinking wine until the wee hours of the morning

* trying a variety of spicy and hot foods at the farmers market and different shops. hot and spicy is big in galena apparently!

* meeting real life ghostbusters - hilarious

* the stars were phenomenal

* trying my first "beer nugget"

* waking up from a nap to the most gorgeous autumn sunset and doing an impromptu photo shoot

* sampling beers at the galena brewery

* singing karaoke and getting the crowd amped up

* getting the girls to do a little photo shoot by our cabin in their pjs before taking off

overall it was a great weekend! so nice to leave the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives and catch up with my favorite ladies. hope we can do it again sometime!

legit halloween celebrations.

last year i was called the halloween grinch. i believe i fit that role again this year. i'm really not into spending money on a costume and getting dressed up and going out to the bars for a crazy night crammed with a bunch of people in smelly or slutty costumes. i am however, all about doing the scary stuff and traditional halloweeny activities. this year i boycotted the going out part and did the fun stuff.

last weekend i got to do pumpkin carving and watch hocus pocus with my rugby girls. i haven't carved a pumpkin since jr. high and it's a lot harder than i remember!! i went with an easy design of a bat. my buds were more skilled in carving and went with more difficult carvings - a troll, the word boo! and a skull. they turned out great and we had a really good time! i also went to the chronicles of the cursed haunted house with my friend mary. i LOVE being scared and watching scary movies and going to haunted houses so i was so glad someone was down to go to the haunted houses with me. i got VERY nervous before we went in but it wasn't too scary - just a lot of fun!

this weekend i decided to try out rocky horror picture show at the music box for a non-traditional halloween night out. let me say, i'm glad i did it but boy was it miserable. it was sold out and so crowded and everyone was so drunk. tara had never seen it before and i didn't really know what to expect. i didn't realize how much stuff is thrown at you and how much yelling would take place. but man, it's just not fun if you don't know the lines or if you're not 3 sheets to the wind. so we left early after getting pelted with milk duds and getting covered in confetti. it was definitely an experience! on saturday rob and i went to dream reapers haunted house in melrose park. we went a couple of years ago and it was really good so we wanted to try it out again. it was so much better and SO scary!!! we were so freaked out and just had the best time ever. later on we went to the morning benders concert at lincoln hall which was great. on sunday we did some errands and made a stop at the halloween parade in boystown. i went last year and loved it but this year it was moving so slow and it was quite chilly so we only stayed for awhile. it was pretty incredible to check out everyone's costumes though. not only the people in the parade but just on the street. people get pretty crazy in my hood. our favorite was an oscar the grouch. i can't even explain how he did it - but he had a dummy's torso holding the garbage can, his legs attached to the dummies torso and then his body in the oscar costume in the garbage can. it was cool! overall, i'm pleased with how i celebrated halloween this year. the only thing i would like to add to next year's festivities is fright fest at six flags!