Browsing Tag

Kristy

Wayback Wednesday - High School Decorating
Life

Way Back Wednesday: Interior Design

Even though I am in this photo looking a hot mess, that is not what I want you to focus on. Look behind my “Mom bursts into the room with a camera the morning after prom and I’m still sleeping” face and focus on the room, especially the walls. Don’t you love them? Isn’t that classy? Because in high school and mostly through college, I thought the whole concept of decorating meant you take as many pictures of hot boys and plaster them like wallpaper all over your walls. Or posters of the music you listen to – this was my “gangsta rap” stage – THUG LIFE BITCHES! This picture does not show that directly above me, on the peaked ceiling, there is another Tupac poster, a Biggie poster and a Diddy “No Way Out” album cover poster. I just pretty much assumed that every spare inch of wall space should be covered in something – pictures, glow in the dark stars, sparkly disco balls.

If you look closely, you can see the original Polaroid of this photo hanging on the wall.

Also, that is a waterbed I am sleeping on. That’s how awesome I was! (Can’t you tell by the bangs?)

January 18, 2012
Wayback Wednesday - The High School Clubbing Years
Life

Way Back Wednesday: Summers in High School

Better known as the summers I spent at my dad’s where there weren’t as many (read: any) rules so I was going out to nightclubs with my older cousins and drinking and dressing like I was a grown woman. This was one of those nights where we were heading out to a nightclub – or, now that I look closer and see there’s a stamp on my hand, coming home? Who knows? We very well could have been going out and that stamp leftover from the night before because they were a bitch to get off. Regardless, I’m like sixteen here and that is my second cousin (my dad’s cousin) who is like 26 or so. This was also my blond stage and also, see how tan my right arm is? You can’t see it in the picture but my left arm is not that tan – and that, ladies and gentleman, is what happens when you ride around with your arm hanging out of the passenger side window all summer.

Also, that dress was really short. Apparently, I was a skank!

January 11, 2012
Flounder at Hyman's Seafood
Life

Sunday Evening

“And just like that, another weekend gone!”

Inevitably, if you live in my house, this is what you will hear at least one time on Sunday. It is such a strange day around here as we are partly sad that the weekend is coming to a close. And yet, when I sit down on a day like today and my house is clean, my tummy is full, the laundry is spinning in the dryer and almost all of my to-do list is checked off, there’s a part of me that is equally satisfied that I have put another week of accomplishments behind me and can start anew.

Aside from accomplished, if I had to pick a word that summed up last week, it would be: MODIFY [1. Note: this word applies specifically to me personally. If I had to pick one that summed up my household as a whole, it would be SKYRIM because that game is literally all that’s been going on in this house between the two of us. It’s not a competition, per se, it’s just that we’re both pretty addicted to it so you’ll find us doing things like rushing to beat the other one home from work to claim the XBox. It is shameful!]

With it being the first week of the month and the first week of the New Year, I figured it was time for me to start making good on some of the resolutions and goals I had set. The key here is that I’m not throwing myself into them full force only to burn out in a few weeks as I have done in the past. Rather, I am making small modifications in my life that I hope will help me develop better habits that will last me through the year and the rest of my life.

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January 8, 2012
Wayback Wednesday - Steve and Kristy
Life

Way Back Wednesday: The College Years

This is Steve and I, circa Fall 2000 or Spring 2001 – though I’m assuming since I was wearing a sweater it was most likely fall. I know this because that poster behind us is one of those ubiquitous drinking posters that I picked up at Spencer’s and hung in the apartment I shared with four of my sorority sisters at the time. I was probably only 19 here and he had mostly likely just turned 20. We were fresh into our new relationship that had started that summer. I have always loved this picture of us and man if I could’ve told myself back then how awesome it would be today, I probably wouldn’t have believed it! Eleven years later and we’re still going strong. He is my world!

January 4, 2012
Donating Blood
Life

Conquering Everest

A few weeks ago, I get an email at work announcing the hospital’s annual blood drive. As my finger is hovering over the delete button, I stop myself.

Three years ago, on December 4, 2008, I was diagnosed with two clots in my lower left leg (deep vein thrombosis). The course of treatment to keep these clots from dislodging and moving into my lungs (pulmonary embolism) was to start me immediately on blood thinners. This meant that for two weeks, I had to get injections of Lovenox in my stomach while my PT/INR levels balanced out – this basically meant my blood had to be at a stable level of just thin enough not to clot and to help break up the existing clots but not too thin where I would bleed out from a tiny cut. Once my levels were stable, I was able to transition to an oral blood thinner but I still had to go in almost every day for blood draws so they could watch the levels. Since there were so many factors that could change them (diet, medications – including the pain meds I was taking – caffeine, etc.), they had to monitor where they were at so they could adjust my dosage accordingly.

It was fairly complicated but I eventually balanced out and they weaned me off of getting the blood drawn every day. I got on a steady dose of blood thinner and within six months, the clots had broken up and I was completely off the medicine and back to normal, for the most part (there’s a few residual side effects but nothing I can’t live with).

Regardless, before that happened, I was TERRIFIED of needles. I don’t know where the phobia came from but for as long as I can remember, it was like that. It wasn’t the pain, or lack thereof, that bothered. It was the act of puncturing the skin that squicked me out. If I knew I had to get blood drawn or a shot, my anxiety would be through the roof – pale, short of breath, sweaty, ready to faint. It just wasn’t something that I could conquer.

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December 28, 2011