My week in pictures

Damn! Has it been a week already? Man we've been busy!

Wednesday:

• Put deposit down on new apartment!
• Went for a run in 90 degree heat… ow.
• Had dinner and watched fireworks with friends who gave us this (thus proving that they know us pretty well):

Thursday:

• The moving company informs us we own 6000lbs of crap. Approximately ½ of which are books…
• Sold husband’s car in less than 12 hours! (thanks Craigslist!)

Friday:

• Went to my depression support group.
• Attempted to do yoga DVD.
• Finished this kick-ass biography about recovery from mental illness:

Saturday:

• Watched 4000 hours of TV:

• Attempted to do aerobics DVD.

Sunday:

• Bought cheap sundresses for our upcoming vacation to Hawaii!

Monday:

• Swam laps at my favorite pool. Tried to savor it since they don’t have outdoor pools surrounded by redwoods where we're going in New England.
• Bought nifty Alyssa Ettinger coasters:

Late Monday night:

• We notice (at 9:30pm) that the cat is limping badly. We get all paranoid and take her to kitty ER. $300 and one x-ray later we learn that nothing’s broken – it’s probably just a sprain. We are instructed to “jam some kitty Aleve down her throat and call us if it doesn’t improve.” Oh, and by the way, the x-ray shows signs of arthritis. Goody. (although, according to the article I read in “Cat Fancy Magazine” in the waiting room at 1am last night, 90-100% of 12 year old cats have some arthritis which makes me feel a bit better.)
• We're woken up at 3:30am by a cat fight outside. Both my husband and I sit straight up, immediately worried that it's our cat crying out in pain. We call her name and she comes limping into the bedroom - ka thump... ka thump... ka thump.

Tuesday:

• First day of the SAT prep class I’m teaching this week. 3 hours of defining words. “Juniper, what does justify mean? What does deception mean? How about alleviate and wary? Juniper, why do they make these questions so hella tricky?”
• Bought mom a Recycled Kimono Handbag for her upcoming birthday:

I think it's safe to say, my ATM card doesn't know what hit it...

Now I ask you... who won the argument?

WHEN: today
WHERE: inside my head
WHAT: a continuation of the never-ending argument between the nagging, anxious voice in my head and me, Juniper.

Juniper: I guess the UTI’s finally gone. It took a week but I’m finally starting to feel back to normal.

Voice: No thanks to you.

Juniper: What the hell are you talking about? When the gallon of cranberry juice didn’t help I went to the doctor and got some antibiotics. I took the antibiotics and now I’m better.

Voice: Still. You did it all wrong.

Juniper: HOW. How did I do it all wrong?! You make no sense!

Voice: The urinalysis wasn't conclusive. You can't be sure you even HAD a UTI. Maybe you were just being paranoid.

Juniper: No. That can happen. I'd been drinking a LOT of fluids. The doctor didn't think I was faking it. That's what you're worried about right - that he thought I was a faker. If he thought that, he wouldn't have given me the antibiotics.

Voice: Still. You got the wrong antibiotics. You didn’t make the doctor listen to you.

Juniper: I tried… I told him I had good luck with old-fashioned antibiotics like penicillin in the past but he wanted to give me that ‘Macrobid’ stuff. He was just too busy and I didn’t think it was worth it to argue with him.

Voice: Whatever it was, it didn’t agree with you. Up until last night you thought it had messed up your stomach.

Juniper: I didn’t think that – YOU kept telling me it had. But it didn’t. I’m fine today. It was probably just my IBS. Or the lactose intolerance. I don't have the greatest GI system, you know.

Voice: Still. It could have. Don’t forget that Cipro you took in 2001 – it knocked out your intestinal flora. Or at least they THINK it did. You’re so irresponsible; you never even went back to the hospital the next day with a stool sample like the doctor told you too.

Juniper: It was September 11th. THE September 11th, 2001? I was a little busy. The world was coming to an end. Remember??

Voice: Still.

Juniper: What is that, your favorite word?

Voice: Ok, ok. So you’ve returned to health. Good for you. What are you going to do for the rest of the day?

Juniper: I’m going to the store. We’re out of canned cat food, vitamins and seltzer water.

Voice: Right now? The day before a holiday? The store will be mobbed! AND you just got your car detailed a few hours ago… now you want to drive it into a dirty parking lot? Aren't you trying to sell it?! And that seltzer water – it can’t be good for your stomach… Still, if you don’t get the cat food, you’ll be depriving the cat of wet food. Are you sure she’s ok? She’s been sleeping a lot…

Juniper: Dear god... If I beat on my head with a rock, would you go away or just shut up for a little while?

Havin’ little arguments with myself…

WHEN: last Monday night
WHERE: inside my head
WHAT: argument between the nagging, anxious voice in my head and me, Juniper.

Juniper: Oh CRAP… I think I’m getting a UTI. Damn. Not another one! Why am I so susceptible to these?

Voice: It’s your fault Juniper. You’re just an icky, unclean girl.

Juniper: No, I’m not! Remember that ER doc who quizzed me about how to avoid UTI’s? He said I knew everything – that I could teach a course on how NOT to get them.

Voice: I remember. I remember that he SAID that if you know everything AND you still get UTI’s then there’s probably something wrong with your anatomy. You have bad kidneys or you have screwy plumbing. He said that if you keep getting them, you should get an ultrasound.

Juniper: Oh. Right. I remember. But my kidneys are fine - my shrink checked their function all the time when I was on Lithium. Besides, I had an ultrasound…

Voice: Yeah, when you were in third grade! You know, you saw that ER doc five years ago. You should’ve followed up on that.

Juniper: OK, I grant you, that was a while ago… but I’ve had other things to deal with.

Voice: Well, you don’t have the time right now to deal with getting to a referral and starting a series of tests with a urologist. You’re in the process of moving across the country, you know. Just add it to the long list of things to do when you get to New England. SIGH. Your new insurance company is going to LOVE you.

Juniper: Still, It’s not my fault.

Voice: Yes it is. Somehow it is. At the very least you should’ve pushed fluids. You knew you didn’t pee enough on Saturday…

Juniper: Ok, ok! You’re right. But I can do that now; I can nip it in the bud. I’ll go to the store first thing tomorrow morning and chug a huge bottle of cranberry juice. Ok?

Voice: Hrumph. We’ll see.


To be continued...