The New Year is Here!

It is now a few weeks into 2010, and I am doing fairly okay with my new year's resolutions. For example, I walked home from SVU 3 times already. I know that may not seem like much exercising to you, but that is really good for me. Also, while I still haven't earned any money, I have bid on three jobs on elance.com, I may not get any of them, but I'll continue bidding on jobs. Also, have kept up on my indexing--100 names per week. I keep hopeful. I have hope for the future. Hope that I'll be able to earn money, hope that I'll be able to move back to Provo, hope that once back in Provo I'll be able to get a job. I think as far as a job goes I would like one that I can sit down at and one where I can earn enough money to support myself. Some places I've considered looking at for jobs are Nuskin, ancestry.com, Provo City, BYU if there are any jobs open.

I'm only doing so-so with trying to go to bed earlier. It's difficult for me. I've kept up on my Institute reading so far. Hopefully I can continue to stay on track. I'm also still helping with SVU's literary magazine--The Review. We need to get started on production work soon though. This evening I got some more blog mining done for Rick Walton.

I'm still working on cross-stitching Christmas presents. Hopefully people don't mind getting them late. If they do, I'll just tell them it's a New Year's or Valentine's or St. Patrick's etc present. :) Today I watched a cute movie. It is actually one I'd seen before, but forgotten. It's called "The Cowboy and the Lady." I really liked it :) I love watching movies--they make me happy.

I am also trying to be more productive. In pursuit of the goal, the other day I spent an hour typing in writing notes. Ideally I would spend a few hours every day working on writing, but I've got to start where I am and improve from there--slow though the progress may be. I'm also reading this book my dad wants me to read--The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. It's interesting. It talks about how myelin wraps around the nerves in our brain making it so they can fire quicker and that's how we gain skills--the more we practice (the right kind of practice, mind you) the more the myelin wraps and the better we get at those skills. At least that is my understanding. Reading this book does bring some questions to my mind. For example, how does myelin work for someone who has Fibromyalgia? Does FM affect myelin at all? Since apparently everything is controlled by the nerves in our brain, what are the mechanisms that create the symptoms of Fibromyalgia? I don't expect the book to answer these questions, but it does cause me to think and to wonder.

Well, I won't regale you more on my thoughts and questions sparked by this book. I actually need to decide what I'm going to do the rest of the evening and an episode of "Remington Steele" is sounding mighty nice! I'm so glad Tiffany Draut introduced me to that show! She currently serving a mission in Brazil. I think that's way cool, but am kind of glad that it's her and not me.

Until next time~~~

New Years is Coming...

Today I spent the day in dreamland--literally. I have many dreams, hopes, and goals for the new year. For example, I'd like to earn money--that's a goal, and a hope. I dream of moving back to Provo. I have a goal to exercise two to three times a week. And many more. But all of these seem hard, almost overwhelming when looked at in the context of my life. Now, I'm sure I have a tendency to make problems appear where there are none, and I know I allow my fears to trip me up...I know it's silly to let life overwhelm me like it so often does. What I need to do is have patience and trust in the Lord. Yet I can't leave everything up to the Lord.

I did achieve one goal this month--I made, in time for Christmas, presents for each person in my family that would be home (I still have to make Byron's).
My arms and entire body hurt much more than they did a month ago, but I accomplished something and proved to myself that I am not a complete coward and wimp. However, I am still in a quandary as to how far I can reasonably push myself.

Lately I've played a lot of the game Jungle Jewels. I've actually been playing it as I write this post, whenever I get to a point where I'm not sure what to say next...like right now:)

It feels good to work towards and accomplish a goal, but sometimes I need help beyond my own. Yet, I can't expect daily, or even biweekly help from people. Unfortunately it is too much to ask for continuous help. Life gets busy, things happen, and so I need to be my own help, I guess. My own champion. Rewards can help, but it works better when it comes from an outside source. Punishments are even harder.

Now I'm playing on Pixiehollow.com :>) I love how beautiful Pixie Hollow is!



I've frittered away the day in sleep and the evening in play, but perhaps tonight I can get something done (like starting work on Byron's Christmas present) while I watch TV and movies. Before I do that though, I want to do some indexing (indexing.familysearch.org)

As I've done blog mining for Rick Walton, I've not found blogs with lots of writing advice and links, I've also discovered how awesome blogs can be. I've looked at some pretty nice ones. All the ones I've been looking at I've found though www.asuen.com/blog/blogroll.shtml.

I really like Marcia Lynn McClure's books. Lately I've been in the mood for them. I'd love to buy more of her books, but I'm broke, so I'll just have to reread the ones I have:) They are not the most literary of books, but they are fun and enjoyable to read. Plus they make me happy:) She is such a fun and happy person:) I like buying her ebooks since I get them almost immediately. But I also really like physical copies of her books too. But enough about Marcia (www.marcialynnmcclure.com/).

I really do want to get some indexing done before I start watching tv and movies for the night. So to you I shall say "good night." :)

Miscellani

I had some crazy dreams last night. Right now, instead of going to my internship early, I'm staying and watching Brian Regan. LOL. He's actually pretty funny. Today will be my last Saturday night working at Day's! After that I have two more day's of work and then I have to get to major league packing and whatnot. I am really starting to look forward to driving across the country and to seeing my friends. Doesn't relaxing sound so wonderful. It will be interesting to see what my SED rate is, especially since my knees were killing me yesterday and whatnot. I'm don't think the cortisone shot they gave me on Monday helped that much, it didn't really make the pain any better, but maybe it lowered my SED rate.

It seems like there was something else I was going to write about...oh, right. Last night I went to Marcia Lynn McClure's meet and greet in Orem. It was a long wait, but worth it. I totally bought two more of here books, even though I really can't afford it. I need to work on the whole buying things I can't afford. Oh, yesterday Rick Walton called me his assistant:). I enjoy working with him. I hope he still emails me stuff to do even when I'm in VA. My back is hurting right now:(, among other things. I still have lots of things to do before I move. I have gotten quite a bit done (in part due to the great help of friends), and getting everything else done will require lots of help from others, but I do need to try and get stuff done that only I can do. I've been on an NCIS kick lately. And I've given in to it a lot since I've been pretty worn out and hurting lately.

I am going to miss Leading Edge. I am also going to miss access to InDesign. I continually realize how much I love doing book layout and design! I guess I should really get going. But, yeah. Life's good despite life's various pitfalls. Until next time...au revoir

It's late

Hi, it's late and I should probably get ready for bed soon. But it's been awhile since I've written, so I decided to take a moment to write. My life is going to be changing soon. I'm moving in two weeks. That is really not that much time when you think about it. I have goals for when I get home. Number one is to work on sleep. Some of the others are Writing!, nutrition, health in general, and who knows what else. Oh, I'd like to do more scanning of Family History stuff, and Mom and Dad's photos. My doctor wasn't horribly pleased to see that my SED rate is back up to 30. But...well, that's just kind of how my life goes. Which is okay. I really should go to bed soon, 'cause I'm hungry and I do want to go to the temple tomorrow since it is about the only free time I have to go this week. Which reminds me, I need to email Rick Walton to let him know when I can work this week.

I have many dreams in life. I'm not sure how many of them will be fulfilled (or in what way/how different from what I might imagine) but that's okay...you know what they say about reaching for the stars. I enjoy book layout and design. I really do enjoy it. InDesign is one of my all time favorite computer programs. The internet is pretty awesome too.

I can't let myself stress out. I was a bit earlier. It is easy to do. Very easy. But, that's okay. The powercord for my laptop died yesterday (there was a blue spark, and then nothing) so I got a new one, it's not quite as great as my last one, but it will do, it will do. I really should go to bed. I am feeling rather tiredish despite the nap I took earlier today. It's nice to have friends.

Until next time.................

Randomness and so forth

Where to begin...I've thought of numerous things to write about throughout the day...unsurprisingly most of them medical related. This might end up being in lots of random orderness. So, this morning I went to my rheumatologist. And he wants to focus on bringing down my overall inflamation level, which is a good thing, but hard for me imagine happening, since as far as I know I've never had a SED rate under 13 and he wants to get me down to a 2. So, we'll see. He is not really willing to focus on all the randomness in my body until then. He says the tingling in my elbow cannot be caused by carpal tunnel since it involves a different nerve. So, back to ignoring it all as best I can, well not necessarily ignoring it, but trying to not allow it to worry me.

Oh, and apparently as far as individual health insurance goes, I am pretty much uninsurable since I have fibromyalgia. There are a couple of options, but my best bet is to get on a group health plan either by getting a job with medical coverage, or something like that. Random tingling and pain can be frustrating...just in case you wanted to know. At the moment I am having random tingling on the left side of my face next to my nose. Like I said, random.

Today I also looked more into getting a new job...and what little I did was rather exhausting to me and the job search process is rather daunting, plus my doctor did ask if I thought I could actually work full time...but as I told her...what other options do I have...not any good ones that I can see. And so, the search must go on. And we will just hope and pray that things can get worked out with my body.

I used to loathe medicine. I was not at all fond of it, especially prescription medicine. So, you have an idea of how ironic it is that the following thought crossed my mind this evening:"Medicine is a good thing, at least for me." LOL, but it's true. Without medicine I'd have a bit more difficulty attempting to function. I stuggle with that as is.

Writing tip of the day: Just get started--do whatever it takes...tell yourself you just have to write one paragraph, promise yourself rewards, whatever...the important thing is to get started, and once you do it is generally easy to keep going. (Tip courtesy of my internship with Rick Walton.)

Music is wonderful and random pains are not.

I'm trying

Well it's time for another post. (Warning: I am rather a bit tired so we'll see how this post goes). The other night I was talking to a couple of my friends and they pointed out to me that I'm trying. So, while there is much more I need to do with and in my life, the best I can do for now is try. I know that I often make unwise decisions (such as staying up late). But I hope that I make less unwise decisions than I used to. Success can be determined by different measuring sticks.

So, carpal tunnel has returned in my right arm (if it ever fully left). That means the cortisone shot I got in it worked for less than a month. I'm pretty sure that is not the best news ever. I have no idea what the next step will be as far as treatment for it. My doctor said surgery isn't really helpful for my type of carpal tunnel (mine is caused by inflammation rather than by scar tissue). Also, it has now been three weeks since I started taking my new anti-inflammatory and I'm still in lots of pain all the time. This suggests to me that this new medicine isn't helping that much. When my doctor put me on this med he said it was the strongest he could put me on without it being a steriod. So, I guess I'll just have to wait and see what he says now. I would like some answers though.

This post isn't shaping up to be all that interesting--sorry. I really should take better care of my body. I really don't want it to force me to stop pushing it too far. I currently don't push it near as much as I used to, but still. I think I am going to go rest and relax for a time...maybe read, maybe take a nap, who knows. 'Til next time.

PS Today I helped Rick Walton, the author I intern for, sign books for him to give to his students--I wrote the inscription and he signed them. It was a first for me and I enjoyed it.