Jody’s Neighborhood

I'm currently watching you on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.

I don't know if anyone's told you but you are NOT Steven Tyler. Let it go!!

Cause I am REALLY out of sync tonight.

I got up at noon, thinking it was 10a, cause I forgot that I reset my alarm clock yesterday (I still haven't remembered WHY I reset it). So I started the day an hour late.

Then I heard a police scanner say something about "do you have the suspects?" and it was REALLY close so I checked the windows and found out it was pretty much in front of my house. Then I recalled strange noises and lots of barking by the neighbors dogs, and Boo sitting in the backyard with her look that conveys something is wrong. When Boo gave me the look, I understood that there were people in the neighbor's driveway - but I didn't process the fact that it was a bad thing. (I suspect, based on little, that it was more than 1 person and they were trying to break into homes.)

So waiting for police issue to resolve delayed me a little more.

Knowing I'd miss lunch at work, I stopped at 7eleven and snagged a sammich and coffee - to which I added an energy shot.

Traffic was freakishly horrid, on all 3 freeways that I use, so that delayed me even more.

The day just zooooooomed by. I was driving home and shocked/annoyed that the Sketchers store was closed, as was the mexican food joint at the end of the street. Oh yeaaaaaa... it's almost 11pm. Duh!!

Now it's after midnight and I feel like it's about 9pm, max, and I'm really really thankful that it's Friday so I can not care about being awake all night and sleeping late tomorrow.

BRIAN SETZER CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA CONCERT tomorrow night (with Royal Crown Review opening).... BOOO YAAAAA!!! I'd like to do the retro/40s hairdo that I learned but I'm sure I'm too lazy to bother.

Today I got a wild hair and bought a ticket to Timbaland, at the HOB WeHo, on Jan 29. I like his music. He pairs with lots of celebrities. He'll be in LA (maybe some cool special guests??!). Tix were cheap ($45-ish; So I won't feel bad if I can't make it). It's all good.

ZOOOOOM ZOOOOOOM ZOOOOOOOM@!!

I originally posted this story on Sparkpeople, but I have friends here that I wanted to share this with, you have all been on the rollercoaster ride with my health over the past few years, the ups and the downs. I have just not felt like blogging for awhile now. With the ups and downs with my health I just have not felt like doing much of anything for months now.
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Over the past 5 years I have laid the blame of my weight anywhere I could. From my husbands diabetes (uncontrolled so he tends to go low alot, meaning he eats often, which means I would munch with him alot of times) , to Lyme disease, to depression.

I started at 126 lbs in December of '04.
It seems a life time ago.

Within a few months I had gone from a size 8-10 to a size 16, I never imagined walking down the isle in July of '05 in an extremely tight size 16 dress. (it was not tight in May when I bought it!) I can hardly look at my wedding pics because I can't see past the bulges, remembering how I had to squeeze into one of those body molding underwears that pulls all your fat in and hides it.
By Christmas of '05 I was pushing a size 20.

I started having all sorts of weird pains, heart wise and musculature around October of '05. My energy level was low, I was still walking daily. I just wasn't' building up any endurance... or losing weight.

In June '07 I was struck by a case of bells palsy with a side of shingles that had attacked the same side of my face as the palsy. My health was deteriorating faster than I could explain to the doctor.

We initially were trying to diagnose me as having lymes disease. Everything going wrong with me pointed in that direction. But the tests kept coming back negative. My heart was starting to really give me the worst trouble after the bells palsy. I was bed ridden most days. The pains through my body had me bed ridden the other days. Finally my doc just didn't know what to do anymore and suggested I try a holistic approach with another doctor.

She was giving up on me.

I almost gave up... on everything.

I finally made an appt back with her and she put me on anti depressants after I had a break down in her office. Needless to say they did nothing for me and the husband and I started making plans to move out of overcast rainy New England to sunny Arizona thinking that my problem was S.A.D. aka seasonal affective disorder. Massachusetts had been in a 4 year bout of constant daily overcast, cold rainy days.

After the move I felt great for a few weeks. I had a lot of days down recuperating. My energy had bottomed out over the years to the point where just getting out of bed winded me. I started eating healthy again, cut alot of junk food out of my diet and started to get sick. Real sick, I started having anxiety attacks often and felt as if I was worse then before the move. I would end up back in bed eating comfort foods trying to build my strength back up. I gained back every pound that I had lost.

Finally something clicked, a few weeks ago the husband and I left the house for a few days. I felt great! A bit wore out, but all in all really good. The day after we got back home I was sick again, and that is when it clicked. I realized something in the house was making me sick. Going back over the years the one constant that followed us through our moves was our furniture.

In the late winter/early spring of '05 our basement flooded from snow run off. We didn't know it right away since we never used it and it was just storage. I started smelling something odd, mildewy and moldy. We went down and found that the basement had molded from the flood. Huge blooms of black mold covered the whole downstairs, walls, boxes, old clothing. Everything was covered in black mold. We promptly cleaned it all out, tore down the dry wall and cleaned up best we could.

Around fall of '05 we noticed black mold starting to show up through the house. I bought some spray that supposedly would kill it. Not once in all this time though did I ever bother to read up on it.

When we moved in June '07 a week after I was diagnosed with the bells palsy, we moved all our belongings to our new house. All our furniture, which would have had black mold spores on them. We found out that winter that our new house's basement flooded, every time there was a melt off, or heavy rains. So yet more black mold sprouted.

All of this dawned on me a few weeks ago as I sat here wondering what in Gods name is wrong with me. So I finally, after 5 years have got around to researching if black mold can harm you.

It does!

Every thing that I have complained to my doctor about over the past 5 years is a symptom of toxic black mold syndrome.

Every time that I felt better was my body killing the spores in my body. The resulting couple days of down time afterwards was the poisons that the dying bacteria were releasing into my body to repopulate themselves. It is actually a very wild reaction that happens when mass amounts of bacteria die off in the body called The Herxheimer Reaction they release up to 79 different toxic products when they die! They get in the bloodstream and travel to all parts of the body where they can cause all sorts of havok.

It's going to be a long road to recovery from what I have read. But with just a few days down now and knowing this time, that this feeling sick now is a good thing and sticking with the healthy eating.. well I think I can do it this time.

My outlook is positive finally! FINALLY!

I have a goal and I can actually see it. It is not the goal of a number on a scale, it is the goal of getting the old energetic me back. The me that wasn't sick every single day.
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*This all began 2 weeks ago, I cut gluten out of my diet and the change in my life was immediate. I began with my black mold treatment today. So I am praying that good things happen with that!*

*The real meaning behind this post is, research what is wrong with you. Don't ever let yourself believe that your doctor has a crystal ball and can diagnose you. Some things in your life they cannot know about. What doctor would have just randomly asked "Hey do you have black mold in your house?" In real life that just doesn't happen. We have to take care of ourselfs and research and then go to our doctor with what we have found. But most of all, be alert to what is going on around you and with your health, your doctor can only diagnose by what you tell them.*

• 12:40 Its a rellano day....its been a rough week! tweetphoto.com/6678373 #

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Gramma sent a yummy Harry and David basket!

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This week has been a hectic one, 40 hours @ dmv, another 24 at Macy's.
The rude ass customers have made it so miserable.
Yesterday afternoon my boss called me into his office to do my yearly review, odd since my anniv isnt till the 31st... and theyre usually way behind. He said he HAD to do it now cuz shit was changing, whatever works for me!

Performance Rating

So I got a "successful" rating, Meaning i do my job, do it well, i help out other ppl, and customers, and i pretty much have done everything in the back office and trained other ppl to do it as well. And after i brought up for the 2nd time i didnt wanna deal with the phones anymore, while he was getting my ppwk signed by the director he brought it up to her that I havent been up front yet, and that would take me from a motor vehicle tech 1, to a tech 2, (lil bit more money) but then i would be a fully trained clerk in all aspects, and she thought that was a wonderful idea. Ugh i thought of this 4 months ago ppl sheesh can i get some credit?

So the memo went out today and it's official, January 4th I will be moved to the front counters. w00t. A change of pace is all i really want, we'll see if its any better.

White bodice

So bossman told me today that there were only 2 concerns:

Alarm Clock

1. being on TIME, yes this is an issue for me, i like sleep and im not a morning person and i work a lot.

2. My ahem.. "endowment" meaning, my boobs. I looked at him and said WTF ??? The mgr up front brought that up. my boss said uhm, her boobs are under control, she has no issues with that. Then i said, uhm, well has she SEEN Jaleysa's boobs? she's got at LEAST double what i have and her shits poppin out all over the place!!! We laughed about it and he said, well you know that manager, shes kinda flat, she doesnt really know what you guys go through, you cant hide 'em if you tried...

At first i was confused/amused by it and then I got pissed off by it. Seriously, thats your concern? My boss showed her my stats, this year I have processed and or answered 33,323 phone calls / titles / renewals. That's a lot for one person. She pretty much shut up after that.

I feel like i'm on auto pilot/zombie mode right now. Just got home from macys a while ago, and just tryin to chill out and get tired so i can sleep. last night i stayed on the couch again, some reason it makes my hips feel better. Makes no sense. my $400 pillow top mattress should do that, right?

The cats have been super needy lately requiring lots of pettin's , i'm sure its just cuz i'm gone about 14 hours of the day. Thank goodness i have friday night off, i'm sooooooooooo looking forward to it. 

can't believe xmas is a week away, wonder if i'll get any xmas cards with $$$ in them, that'd be nice!

k its 1:15 am, i should really go lay down somewhere and sleep, this couch is very tempting though...

• 01:19 Anyone have a FREE multi-alarm app for blackberry? #
• 01:44 I favorited a YouTube video -- COMING HOME MUSIC VIDEO www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1pc8YMbqnM&feature=autoshare_twitter #
• 08:56 Guess BB email is in an outage everywhere? Yet my gmail app works just fine... Way to go sprint. #
• 11:18 @molliemoon its draggin ass here, I need a nap before the next job! #
• 13:19 Hot tamales are hot! Sheesh. tweetphoto.com/6608051 #

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I'm feeling surprisingly good this evening - without meds or alcohol to credit. I'm a little too awake for 1am but that's probably due to my 11p "dinner" (bread & cheese spread) and "un refresco de medico chili" (bottle of Dr. Pepper soda).

I suspect the improved mood (physically/knees, I'm still only so-so, though more good than bad) is due to admitting defeat on the work project and, mentally, giving up. It will get done or it won't. I didn't even want to hurt stupid people (a miracle!!), not even those who are making my job more difficult (wtf?!? who am I??). I genuinely don't care anymore. Since taking that to heart, I've been much more patient and happier and generally a pretty descent human to be around (well, as decent as I ever get). It's only been 2 days. But it's been a nice 2 days!

Having read that le Target is open late, I stopped in after work to pick up a power drill. I figured they're open till 11p so it was okay that I was swinging in at 10:15 but they're actually open till MIDNIGHT. I feel sorry for the staff - except I got out around 10:30 and the parking lot had cleared out pretty dramatically so they probably have slow work nights (at least this week). There were only 3 cashiers so it can't be too horrid... though probably worse for the people who have to restock & reorg.

My goal at Target was for a new power drill. Choices were the 9.6v drill for $18.99 or the 12v drill for $39.99. Both on sale. Would have loved the 12v but couldn't justify the extra $20. If I'm doing a project that needs more power, I should probably be having Adrian do it anyway (assuming he's still around - I haven't talked to him in months).

Of course, being Target, I also had to look at lingerie, pajamas, workout wear, and fat lady clothes. I thought about checking out the electronics and xmas depts but couldn't see any reason to put myself through that hell. Then I picked up deodorant, razor blades, hair gel, a couple sodas, and a card for giving cash to someone (my postal carrier. Yes, she deserves it.). I wonder what my total was - I didn't pay attention. I tried to find the new L'Oreal mascara with the short little brush (to see if that keeps me from getting mascara on the side of my face when doing the outer lashes) but they were out. Target's makeup dept SUCKS. At least at all the locations around here. Always looks like it's just been ravaged... 90% out of stock and the remaining 10% is a disaster area.

I really wish Target sold booze cause I would have liked some tonight (though not any of the 12 million kinds I already have in the house).

I got home and my Old Navy order had been delivered and EVERYTHING (8 shirts) FIT. Probably cause I mostly bought size "2xl maternity" (my tummy looks preggers and, sure enough, those shirts fit me well - and accent my boobs!!). I really love the sweater I bought - glad I thought (in my drunken state) to get it in 2 colors. Disappointed that I bought 3 shirts in pretty much identical styles/colors (bright magenta) but... oh well. I want to wear one of the sweaters to work tomorrow but it occurred to me that I don't have any clean, non-wrinkled, pants (cause clean laundry is in a pile on the floor). It will be fun to see what I work out in the morning!

The big box in the backyard (found last night) is clearly the auto cat litter box. I still haven't brought it inside. The box is HUGE... too much to deal with till I have more time. I don't want to let myself bring it nside cause I know me, it will take another 2 weeks to remember to drag the monster. Better to open it outdoors so the box goes from backyard straight to the recycling bin!

Am I still waiting for another order? Oh yeah... the clothes (pants, jacket and ??) from Newport News. I should probably also make up my mind about the 2 items I got from Hips & Curves (long skirt and a leopard robe/coat)... keep or return? I also have returns for Home Depot and Penny's in my car but I keep forgetting about them. I might remember, and have time, to do the HD return this Sun but I don't know when I'll make it to JCP.

Sooooo.... should be another relatively decent day at work tomorrow. I might even get out early (8p-ish) but I won't count on that. No plans till Sat. Whatever shall I do with a free evening... vacuum? put away laundry? sit on the sofa like a slug? **ding*ding*ding** - we have a winner!!!

Now for a musical interlude...