stuffing your face makes everything better

so the interesting thing about my salmonella experience is that i never stopped being hungry.  unlike the flu (at least in my case) food still sounded good. it sounded great, in fact. but i knew what the outcome would be, so i abstained, except of course when i'd try saltines and/or sherbet to get a status update from my stomach.

on thursday night, the battle raged on, and by friday morning, i was completely fine. i don't know how to explain it, but when i woke up, it was as if the previous five days had been a figment of my imagination.  and once i could stuff my face again, everything suddenly felt more manageable.

the dog got a bath, laundry was done, grinding brake problem was fixed... and, by the way, if you are someone who is lucky enough to have found an honest mechanic - be grateful. i know i am!!

and the bonus?  the bonus was that my friend lara was in town for the wedding of our mutual friend, danielle.  and for me, there are very few cures better than spending time with my east coast peeps to get me out of a funk.

after my brakes were done and danielle's sealing complete, lara headed to my place to hang out until we both left for the reception.  i haven't had many friends come to visit since i've lived here, and it was really fun for me to share my new life with her.

one of the first things she said to me was 'i totally get why you like living here.' and, as people seem to do, she fell in love with cordy, verbalizing what i have always suspected about this little dog, that, 'you can tell she has a really sweet soul.'

yeah. i had a proud mama moment:)

finally, it was time to head to the reception, and when i learned that it was being held at a 'senior center,' i was a little concerned.  concerned and amused.

it was all for naught though as we headed out to the terrace and were surprised at how beautiful it was.  the location was a bit of a hidden treasure, and selected largely due to the fact that the groom's mexican family would be preparing all of the food for the reception and needed a full kitchen in order to do so.

i have to admit that i was impressed with the decor.  it was the perfect example of how to stage a classy, elegant event, on a budget.  nothing felt under or overdone and the proportions seemed perfectly balanced.  the personal touches were simple and perfect, and the food was, well, it was flippin' authentic mexican food.  good thing i'd said goodbye to mr. salmonella because i was in mexican heaven!

you may remember that i recently mentioned learning that a friend had been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.  the bride is the friend i referred to, and as such, it made the evening particularly meaningful.

this is a first marriage for both the bride and groom, who are in their 40's, and the cancer is much more aggressive than anyone originally suspected.  in addition to the golf ball size tumor in her breast, she also has multiple tumors throughout her bones, and the prognosis is not optimistic.  and while my heart breaks for what will ultimately be the end of their mortal story together, whenever that time comes, what a wonderful challenge and blessing it is that these two worthy people have found each other and been sealed together for eternity.

while i expect most of the guests had similar thoughts, an outsider would have simply seen a PAR-TAY! there was food and dancing. oh boy, was there dancing! (not for the knee-challenged, but i sure enjoyed watching.) and it was the first bilingual wedding i've attended, where literally every toast and speech was translated in spanish and english.  i feel fortunate to have been included in such a celebration, and i am officially out of the funk.

and if i can avoid near-future intestinal upsets and manage a relatively easy recovery from surgery, i may even STAY out of it! ;)

warning: whine zone

so, i'm 95% sure i have salmonella.  on saturday morning, after a really fun spontaneous trip to joshua tree (about a two hour drive) to watch the perseid meteor shower (where i, for the first time in my life, slept out under the stars) i talked my roommates into making a stop at the cabazon dinosaurs and having breakfast at the wheel inn.

both gained notoriety in 'pee-wee's big adventure' and they have been on my hot list since arriving in california.  and since i don't go out to joshua tree on a regular basis, this was my best opportunity for check-marking that little item.

big mistake.

don't get me wrong. the dinosaurs were fun and kitschy, as expected, but the breakfast was the worst meal i've ever consumed in my life.  in fact we all agreed on that point.

the rest of the day, my stomach felt a little off, but i mostly chalked it up to lack of sleep.  afterall, we had left for joshua tree at 10pm, arrived a little after midnight, watched meteors until 3, then got up at 5am to head out.

eventually i got my stomach under control and my roommates and i joined some others from the ward to go see the last performance of twelfth night in the 'shakespeare by the sea' season.  the play was held outdoors at point fermin park n san pedro, and as heather used to teach in that area, she made sure we took the route winding along the fantastically beautiful coastline.

it's sad to say, but the drive ended up being the highlight, as shortly after the play started,  heather and i realized we had had far too little sleep for shakespeare!  since neither of us had driven though, we were stuck. so we found creative ways to catnap in our camp chairs.

other than still being extremely tired, sunday passed normally, until about 4am, when my stomach decided to go to war with itself.  and four days later, that battle still rages on.  what was initially confusing to me was that other than the inability to keep food down, and the tiredness (which could be attributed to a number of explanations) there were no other symptoms.  and i don't know about you, but when i get the flu, i GET the flu.

i knew it wasn't your standard food poisoning, which onsets almost immediately, but i also felt that this was not a 'normal' sick. it wasn't until i was talking with a co-worker yesterday and he asked me if i thought it could be salmonella that i did a little digging, and all of the 'symptoms', including the timeline are right on.

so now i'm on day 5 (they say recovery between 4-7 days) and i haven't been able to keep anything down since sunday.  i've dropped 8 pounds this week and i'm flippin' HUNGRY.  but i know what will happen if i indulge that hunger, and it ain't pretty or pleasant.  and really, i'm pretty annoyed,  i feel like knee surgery should meet the quota for crappy health stuff in any one month, and now this.  i feel like i'm losing control of the little things and i can tell that my boss is less than enthused about all my recent time off - first for the knee, now for salmonella.  even i have a hard time believing it.

it all feels a little overwhelming at the moment and i'm pretty grumpy about it. cordy is in desperate need of a bath...easy, one might think, but being on my knees is one painful and two will induce vomiting.  i need new brakes, need to research new car insurance, cancel my september work trips (since i'm not allowed on a plane for two weeks post-surgery), clean, attend a wedding this weekend, and get my job responsibilities back to a manageable mess.  needless to say, this is not exactly how i hoped my birthday month would turn out.  i even had to forgo the chocolate spa thanks to the stupid knee. gah!

irony

i just saw a commercial for a new movie starring drew barrymore & justin long about a long distance relationship.  anybody else amused that such a movie would be opening on my birthday?

i think it's the universe's way of wishing me a happy one, but i'm not sure if i should blow out the candles before or after i know what the ending is:)

a perfect southern california weekend

what can i say, i think this whole knee thing isn't so bad as it could be.  don't get me wrong, i'm a little nervous about the surgery...particularly as i have spoken to a couple of people in the last week who've had the same surgery and they were on crutches for 6-8 weeks post-surgery.  as i've since learned, if the meniscus can repaired, i shouldn't have that problem, but only 10% of it can be repaired. if it can't be repaired, it will have to be removed, and if it's removed, i can count on a lot of crutch time.

september is one of my busiest event months.  i'm scheduled to be in four different cities next month, so i'm not sure how that's all gone work, but one step at a time.

in the meantime, i'm feeling more like myself than i have in ages.  thanks to the knee, i've been home for the longest uninterrupted period of time since i started this job.  there's something about being home and having the ability to decide how i spend my time that makes me feel like ME again!

this weekend i exercised my freedom by taking advantage of two great southern california staples.  first up, the orange county fair!

spreading the xshot love. alison wanted to try hers out, but i think i got the better pic.

my friend alison and i have been planning our date for months, and as i don't get to see her very often, i was excited to relive our fair experience from years past.  i also invited my roommates along, and our friend greg joined us after the styx concert.

the only plan for the evening was food.

i starved myself for days in anticipation of this event.  okay..maybe only a couple of hours, but still, there was plenty of room for the old favorites. onion rings, corn, funnel cake, and ice cream.  we added some new twists, including bavarian cream on the funnel cake, and me convincing alison that mayonnaise on corn is YUMMY!  she was a skeptic but acquiesced to a bite or two, and she was hooked.

in between our food stops, of which, there were many, we enjoyed some of the arts and crafts - particularly the photography - and thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the ice museum.

the ice museum was inside a freezer, and the walls were made of ice bricks.  among the displays were an ice 'david', and a few other ice sculptures, including 'the thinker.'  we were all grateful for the blankets we were given, as it was a balmy 20 degrees inside the freezer.  and we enjoyed it so much that we made sure to take greg through after he had joined us.

we called it a night after we had stuffed and frozen ourselves silly.  not sure how i lasted so long, but i'm going to chalk it up to the vicodin.

the following morning, after running a few errands, heather and i headed down to the beach.

the ward beach party was being held that evening, but we wanted to spend some daylight enjoying the beautiful southern california weather.  for better or worse, the us open surfing championship, held every year in huntington beach, was also taking place.  it made for a festive environment, but the parking was horrendous.

heather dropped me off close to the ward party location, so i wouldn't have to walk too far, but she ended up having to walk a pretty significant distance after finding a spot for the car.   i found the few ward members saving our location and fire pits pretty easily, and enjoyed the bonding time with a couple of girls in the ward i don't know very well.

i got some reading and relaxing done , and slowly towards the late afternoon, other members of the ward began arriving.  i was sung to by a guy with great abs (photo below) watched and laughed at the semblance of a volleyball game, enjoyed a couple of ears from the saltwater corn roast, got to see a long and got to mingle with my peeps.

i also learned the power of a woman.

i was having a conversation with this guy and commented that a man in a suit is far more handsome than in almost anything else.  today, as i was singing in sacrament meeting, i saw him at the back of the chapel...in a suit.  this may not sound momentous, but i've never seen this guy in a suit before. shirt, tie, slacks, but never a jacket.  and to my point, he looks as good or better in the suit than he does in those abs. ;)

family fun week

last weekend was spent with laurie and her family who were in town for a little vacation. on friday night, the freemans, the donahoos, and i headed to angels stadium for the annual 'mormon night'.  as far as i'm concerned, there isn't a bad seat in a baseball stadium, and sitting in the nosebleeds gives you a little more freedom to watch the game...or not.  since we were surrounded by members from mick and jenny's ward, we found ourselves in animated conversations as often as we were actually watching the game.  and by the time we arrived (in the second inning) the angels were already down 5-0, so we didn't have much hope of it being a good game.

boy were we wrong!

in the 4th or 5th inning, the angels scored a bases loaded home run, and with the addition of one other run, they started closing in on the texas rangers.

we spent the rest of the game enjoying each other's company and cheering on the angels, who, by the way, ended up winning the game.

following the win, we stayed for a little while to watch the friday night fireworks, before deciding to beat the crowds and head for the hills (or the cars, as it were).

i had a little knee incident on the stairs, but was able to eventually walk it out.  and, bonus, i discovered that the stadium staff is both conscientious and kind, as they witnessed my fumble and made every effort to ensure that i was okay, and capable of supporting my own weight.

the following morning, the knee was a bit stiffer than usual, but not so stiff as to keep me from the day's activities.

i headed to the donahoos, and the freemans met us there. then we began our caravan to the beach!

cute family, huh?  they're mine!

the beach of the day was 'little corona', which, ironically was the first beach i visited (with the donahoos) after moving to california -- and i hadn't been there since.  little corona is a nickname for part of the corona del mar beachfront, and it offers some gorgeous scenery.  largely as a result of my physical limitations, we parked down below rather than walking down the very steep road to the beach...and i was also appreciative that we had ended up at a 'short beach'.  by that i mean that the distance between the pavement (parking lot, road, or boardwalk) to the water, is short.  some of the beaches here, huntington and newport, for instance are very 'wide', and i knew that the loose sand could present a bit of a challenge.

the beach was already buzzing, but we found a great spot to make camp, and after a quick clothing change, we headed down the beach to take some family photos of the freemans. a few waves, a knee twist, and many photos later, it was time to get down to the business of playing.

the kids showed us adults how it was done!

we spent hours enjoying the sun and surf and conversation before deciding it was time to head out.

before dinner we stopped at the hotel to rinse off with a dip in the pool, and i ran home for a quick shower before returning to the donahoos for a yummy taco dinner. sadly, after dinner it was time to say goodbye to the freemans.

i've decided that it's so much better when the family comes to visit ME.  okay, they didn't come to visit me, so much, as just take a vacation, but i like it when they come here because i get to spend actual quality time, rather than trying to catch up with everyone in the course of one dinner.  we definitely made the most of our time and i was sorry to see them go!