With the help of some hydrocortisone cream and no makeup the swelling of my eye is virtually gone. I can still tell that my under eye is still a bit puffy when I look down, but otherwise it's looking and feeling somewhat normal again. Thank goodness! I have to work tonight and  it's not that I was self conscious about it, I just really didn't want to have people asking me what happened for 4 hours. The lid is still terribly itchy when I touch or rub it, but I shouldn't be doing that anyway But whatever it was or how short lived the swelling was, any time waking up with a swollen eye is disconcerting. I'm just glad it wasn't any thing bad like an infection.

My eye is slowly getting better. The last Benadryl I took was 4 hours ago and I don't feel like I need another one, which is a good sign. It's just mildly uncomfortable and making me feel ugly, lol. It wouldn't stop me from leaving the apartment though. The weather was so bad today that I didn't want to leave anyway. This is a blessing in disguise as well. I was supposed to do a split shift today the second half closing from 6:30 to 10:30, which I was able to get out of no problem. Anyone who saw me today asked right off the bat if I was okay. I am, it's just a bummer.

Tomorrow I have my third chiro appointment tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it because my back is feeling better and better. The only thing I'm still having trouble with is a muscle in my hip. It's stiff off and on and when it's on I have a hard time sitting cross-legged. It's a hard reality for me because I'm pretty flexible, but not so much right now. I'm dying to get back to the gym to help with that. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel up to it.

I think something bit me last night. I remember rubbing my eye in my sleep because it was itchy and when I woke up for work I noticed I could only open my eye so far. I went to the bathroom to take a look and it's swollen nearly shut. It takes effort to keep it open, effort that is leading to a headache, so I won't bother. It's still itchy and it's watering a little too. The sucky part is that I'm up at 3 for an early morning shift starting at 4, so I can't keep resting. The worst part is that I can't even call in sick because I'm the one with a key to let everyone else in who also start are 4am. If the other keyholder happens to be working today I'll be heading home to sleep some more and then head to clinic. If I have to stay, the good news is that the clinic is only down the hall and I'll be off work just as it opens so I won't have to wait too long.

This is really not fun.

Yuck! I had the worst sleep ever last night. I tossed and turned and couldn't turn my brain off. There was so much noise going on outside, but I was too hot to close the window. And Nate never did come to bed, but instead stayed up late and ended up falling asleep on the couch. I'm not mad at him for that, but I don't sleep well when he's not in bed with me nonetheless. On any given night that he falls asleep on the couch by accident my body knows he's not there and wakes me up in the middle of the night. I'll have to get out of bed and wake him up and get him to come to bed. Sometimes it's like trying get a stubborn cow to cross the road; he just won't budge. So I was up at 2:30 because I couldn't sleep and my alarm was going to go off in fifteen minutes because I had to work at 4am this morning. I was pissed off when I got out of bed. It's so bloody annoying when I can't sleep the night I have to get up at an ungodly hour for work. I actually did all right at work though. I made it through an 8 hour shift, came home and took a nap. I'm not sure how long I napped for, but I woke up groggy and contacts all foggy. Ick. I still feel tired too, which is okay. I should be tired enough to sleep well tonight and be prepared for my 6am start tomorrow morning. 

On completely different topic...

I discovered this spokeswoman for Lancome who does makeup tutorials on YouTube. Her name is Michelle Phan. I'm not entirely sure if she went to school for makeup artistry because in one video she said it was a hobby of hers, but man is she ever good with application technique. She makes it look so damn easy. I've been taking some advice on her more simple makeup looks as I don't like to over do it on my own face. I really wish I could follow her tutorial right down to the exact same products she uses, but as a Lancome spokeswoman she, obviously, uses Lancome which is way too expensive for me. I am absolutely convinced, though, that technique aside, professional eyeshadow is wear it's at. It blends and looks way better than budget eyeshadow. I've already switched to liquid concealer and noticed a difference, especially since she also has a tutorial on how to apply different kinds of concealer properly. She also has me convinced that I should start using an anti-wrinkle cream and a night cream, so I've bought an anti-wrinkle night cream, something a bit heavier and more moisturizing than my regular daily stuff. I have oily acne prone skin so I have a special moisturizer for that. I've also decided to grow my hair out. I miss having longer locks to frame my face. I probably won't go too long, around shoulder length. I just want to long enough to put it up. I like the look of those cute short ponies and some bangs to frame my face. The first several months are going to suck, but with the help of my hairdresser friend who's been cutting my hair I can do what I can to make look decent through the process. I digress...this girl is so awesome and I could watch her videos just to watch her do magic on her own face rather than actually follow the tutorial itself. Her YouTube channel is *here*.

Today I go to the chiropractor again! I'm pretty excited. The cracking feels so good and I know I'm doing my body a favor. It turns out that chiropractic treatment is included with my extended benefits because I got an email this morning from the insurance company saying my claim has been processed and I'll get a payment within 2 days This is great! Not only am I paying less out of my pocket at the appointment due to my MSP premium, but I'm also getting it all back anyway. I only wonder if it's the same for the insurance company as it is for MSP in that whatever I claim for chiropractor comes out of the same pot as massage therapy, if that makes any sense. Basically with MSP I get 10 sessions of chiro, massage and something else (physio or something along those lines) per year at a lower rate. But I can mix and match, do 5 sessions of chiro and 5 of massage, but once those 10 are used up then I have to pay the regular fee no matter what type of treatment I get. I'm just glad I didn't have to pay the full $70 for the initial exam.

Yesterday I was only supposed to work from 2 to 6:30, but once again we had a couple of people call in sick. So with some schedule adjusting I stayed and closed, which was great for me because I was supposed to start at 4 this morning, but got the day off instead. Woohoo! I didn't lose any hours, but rather reallocated those hours into the position I actually enjoy working. I was looking at my schedule online yesterday while at work and realized I was given more hours since I looked at it before it was officially posted. I thought I was only at 51 hours and I thought, Oh well I'm kind of limiting myself by only wanted to be on the desk and admin backup, so I guess that's no surprise. But nevermind! I got 65, which is fantastic considering how frugal head office is making our management be with payroll. There are a lot of people in my store that are struggling with only 10 or 16 hours per week. With 32.5 per week for me, I'm one happy bunny. What those people with very hours need to realize is that if they open their availability they would get more hours. There's this one guy in particular who annoys me with his complaining about the schedule. He's talked to our GM about he's only getting so many hours, but says he's not available on the weekends. Uh..hello? Everyone wants the weekend off, but everyone else in the store works them. If he would just make himself available for Saturdays at least he probably score an extra 4 hours per week. Now I don't know how he spends his weekends, but he's an older man in his 60's and I think he's just got a traditional way of thinking in terms of work in that you're just not supposed to work on the weekends! Not to mention he was a teacher so he never had to work weekends, but if you're struggling to pay your mortgage you do what is necessary to make ends meet, even if it's something simple like making yourself available for weekends. To me it just seems stubborn and even a bit snobby to refuse to work weekends. I just shake my head and think to myself, Good luck shooting yourself in the foot. I could easily cut my hours half my refusing to work weekends too, so I don't do it because it's plain stupid.

Hey hey! I'm using the Xanga mobile site on my iPhone. What up! It kinda sucks actually and I'd much rather use an app.

I'm eating cherries for the first time in...well, I'm not sure. They're always so expensive at the grocery store, but they seem to be dropping in price a little as the season is slowly coming to and end. Today I totally splurged on fruit at the farm market. I bought about two pounds of cherries and 2 1/2 of blueberries, pears and black grapes (because I've never eaten them before). I also restocked on some of my usual salad stuffs. I've been trying to find a lettuce I like and I think I'm good with butter lettuce. It just melts in your mouth and doesn't have any sort of bitterness to it.

This afternoon I went a bit crazy with the cleaning. I finally tidied up the bedroom and vacuumed under the bed because there was a full on colony of dust bunnies hanging out there. I don't do it as often as I should because I neither remember nor like doing it because it's awkward getting under there with the vacuum. I vacuumed the rest of the apartment as well and quickly made an unhemmed runner for the bookshelf where my plants sit. The pots are starting to wear away the finish, so I thought a barrier of any sort, provided it looks good with the decor , should suffice. We have two, but I only did the one because I'm not sure if it would be too much red in a single corner of a green room. I also have this big vase that hold three bamboo shoots with glass pebbles in the bottom. It was getting slimy so I drained it all out, cut the roots off the shoots, washed the vase and the pebbles and put all back together. Does it ever look so much better and presentable now! If I didn't have this feeling of being finished for the day I would tackle the other bedroom, which has seemed to explode since Nate has taken it over with his little art project/Halloween costume.

Nate mum is staying with us for a few days and she has her friend's car with her. I finally remembered all the bagged clothing for Sali-Ann that was in the closet so I took advantage of having a car to use and we dropped those off. Six bags in total! And my closet looks that much better. I also went the farmer's market as mentioned above and we stopped for ice cream at Dairy Queen before heading home. Nate's mum mentioned taking the rest of AJ's (Nate's brother) stuff with her when she goes over to visit him in Nanaimo. This made me ecstatic. He moved out a year ago and still his shit is on the walls or in the closet of the second bedroom, particularly his bike. Bikes take up a lot of room. I'll be glad to be rid of it.

Looking outside the window, the tree on the side of the street is already turning yellow. To be honest I don't mind. I'm an autumn child and looking forward to it. But I have to say that over the three years that I've live in this apartment I've noticed that this tree spends more time naked than most. It wasn't finished growing in all its leaves until the end of June and looks like it's going to the one of the first the shed all its leaves too.

In my previous post I wanted to delve into the work aspect of my life, but thought my post was long enough, so here I am to bore you to death about my work life. Actually, I'll try to keep it short and sweet.

Last night I worked 2 hours of overtime because we were totally hooped. One girl called in sick and the other came and then was told to go to clinic. Ultimately she ended up going home too from some crazy infected bug bites on her fingers. So we were extremely short staffed, especially since most of us were going home at 7:30. I feel like putting in that extra help redeemed myself a bit from all the drama I feel like I've created for myself. It only feels like drama to me, anyway. So a few months back I told my supervisor that I was thinking about becoming a supervisor myself. Word travels very fast at my workplace and before I knew it I had my GM and DMGM coddling me and encouraging me to go forth. I thought it was great! I had been given another position within the store to work in the back money room, which I've always wanted to do. So I started working at 4am prepping the tills for business. Then our primary early morning keyholder got sick and was out for some 8 weeks and they told me I should do that position to gain some skills that would help me become a supervisor. I was apprehensive because they wanted to me to start in a matter or days, but I thought, What the hell! and went for it. This was my first time working on the general floor. I knew I already wasn't a fan of working on the floor and stocking, but I tried my best to suck it up. Also I wasn't able to work in the money room and do keyholder at the same time, which was a bummer. Some weeks later our sick person returned so they moved me into another department. It was nice because I was working during the day and not at 4 am and I could have my admin position back working with the tills.

However, I was so sick of working on the floor at that point. I missed working at the customer service desk so bad. As stupid as customers can be I missed that interaction. I also missed the simplicity of it. I don't run around like a chicken with its head cut off. I have to stay where I am and delegate. I love it up there and all the experience I have up there has helped me master multitasking like nobody's business. I can help two customers at once and be answering phone calls at the same time. It's not great service for the customers in front of me, but I do what I need to do when I'm all by myself. Sometimes the customers are impressed, lol.

So a couple of weeks ago I was having a bad day. My hormones were going wonky because I was no longer on the pill and I was frustrated as all hell. I wanted to go home early and they wouldn't let me. Not only that they wanted to stick me in an area of the store I didn't like. So I embarrassed myself by crying my eyes out. My GM paged me for something else, but I had no choice but to show my wet, blotchy face to her. I felt so petulant. But it was finally there that I confessed that I didn't like being on the floor, that I would like my schedule to be 70/30, desk/admin, with NO more floor shifts. My GM then told me that I was putting her in an awkward situation because they just trained some people to replace me on the desk. I was a little taken aback. Who said anything about me leaving the desk all together? To be honest I felt like I was stolen away from my original position that I enjoyed and thrown into one that I hated. Anyway, I can see both sides of coin. But, I feel like I shot myself in the foot with this whole supervisor thing. I mean, if I hate working on the floor then how am I going to like being a supervisor? I'm worried that my GM sees that. She's a smart woman with a keen eye. I've put this supervisor thing on hold for now anyway because I've made baby making my top priority in life, but I still hate coming across as a difficult employee. At any rate it looks like I'm heading back in the direction of the customer service desk. I still have some keyholder shifts because the other keyholders are taking holidays, but I'm okay with helping them out with holidays. My DMGM, who is doing the schedule, even called me at home to apologize for giving me those shifts, lol. It was a good conversation though because I was able to reiterate how I felt about being on the floor and how much I wanted to go back to the desk.

So that is why I feel like I redeemed myself a little last night by putting in that extra effort to help out. See? I'm not totally useless! lol I don't even care about the overtime pay. Just thinking about leaving when they were so short staffed made me feel like an asshole even though I had absolutely no obligation to stay. In fact, my company hates paying overtime but my supervisor was desperate.

All in all, I'm glad my skills have expanded and I've become a diverse employee, but it's also very important to me that I enjoy what I do.

I'm still lurking...

There have been some exciting things going on with life and work and such. Just last week I hung out with Scott, aka Rimmstar here on Xanga. We've been internet friends thanks to Xanga for 11 years now and finally met face to face. We spent a great day together walking an epic approximate 20km or so. We walked all around the sea wall through Yaletown and up Burrard to Robson St. I had to show him the two Starbucks kitty-corner to each other on Robson and Thurlow. He got a kick out it. We walked down to Gastown from there and stopped for lunch at Steamworks. After lunch we continued our walk down the Cole Harbour side of the sea wall and walked from one end of Denman St to the other for some ice cream at Marble Slab. With ice cream in hand we started walking the sea wall from English Bay and around Stanley Park. I wish I had made it all the way around the Stanley Park sea wall, but with all the previous walking we had already done I wasn't just tired I was in pain. We cut through the park instead and I went home once we reached a skytrain station. Overall it was a wonderful day The next day, however, I have never had hips so sore. My legs were okay, it was just my hips and a blister on my foot. I couldn't sit cross-legged for a few days, lol. Actually, it's been a week and my right hip still feels stiff. I need to go back to the gym and work it out. But thank you, Scott! I'm so glad I could show you my city

Speaking of going to the gym I need to start going again. I lost some weight and put some back on. It's amazing the difference 5 lbs can make. But I need to go back not because I feel like I need to shed these five pounds, but rather strengthen my hips again. I know they're aching quite a bit right now due to hormones. Now that I've come off the pill my hormones are doing their own thing and I've been doing some tracking to know that their aching from hormones, but I think the aching could be curbed through exercise. I think I'm extra sore this time around because of all the walking I did last week as well. I'm also thinking about seeing a chiropractor. I've been getting this shooting pains into my hips and tailbone, kind of like sciatica. They're sharp enough to make me stop and catch my breath. I'm not sure what to do with it other than go to the clinic, but I could probably benefit from a chiropractor none the less.

It's important that I get my back sorted out soon because Nate and I have decided to go for a baby, which is why I've come off the pill. I'm so excited! I was way too excited a month ago, but now the excitement has settled down a bit. I was trying charting and all that, but I want to take it easy and let it happen not force it happen. From what I've heard through various conversations the pregnancies that always seem to happen are the ones couples aren't even trying for. If I chart and try to time the sex with the charting I'll only make myself frustrated for every month that I don't get pregnant. Obviously I'd like to get pregnant as soon as possible and I don't think it should take long because I'm healthy and so is Nate and we've been down this road before. We just need to make sure we're doing the deed consistently and nature will take care of the rest.

Anyway I think I've blabbed enough for one day, lol.

If someone asked me how I'm doing today, I'd say I've been better. My top left wisdom tooth is trying to erupt and when it does it's fairly normal for the gums to become inflamed and be sore. Now, after about 4 days, I'm certain it has an abscess somewhere. Not only is it painful, but that pain has spread to my sinus as well Even my jaw and ear are feeling a bit funny today. So I've left a message on my dentist's answering machine to call me so I can book an appointment. I'm having this thing looked at. I'll take antibiotics if I have to and then I'm getting it pulled out. If I don't get it out this is only going to happen again and again. I'm really hoping I can get it pulled next week or, if I have to take antibiotics, as soon as I'm done the regimen. I don't have coverage, but my sweetie has said he'll pay for it, thank goodness. Even if it happens to feel better tomorrow I'm still going in for an assessment and booking the extraction appointment. Then it's T3s, smoothies and couch for me. Good thing I took some books out at the library today, although I doubt I'll be able to stay awake with codeine in my system, lol. Anyway, I totally understand why babies are so grumpy when they are teething. Poor little things.