it's not exactly a manic monday

This was not supposed to be how my glorious First (Week) Day of Thanksgiving Break was supposed to go. Let me tell you how it was supposed to go:

Sleep in til 10 or so. Spend an hour or so lounging, drinking coffee, etc. Get dressed in a cute and leisurely fashion. Go to Athens and enjoy Thanksgiving potluck at Matt's work for lunch. Walk across downtown and get a long-overdue haircut. Go to the gym. Make dinner. Depart for Atlanta (~9pm) to pick up sis- and bro-in-law from airport.

Here's how it's actually going:

Wake up at 6am unable to breathe. Discover your annoying cough from last night is now of the terrible, deep, chest-y variety. Discover you've lost your voice. And your throat hurts. Get up, take cough medicine, allergy medicine, asthma medicine, and blow nose 200 times. Curse yourself for not remembering to buy cough drops at the store yesterday. Find yourself unable to go back to sleep, so get up again and make coffee for yourself and husband and crash on the couch with the laptop. Tell husband you probably won't make it to lunch. Get mad because the haircut that was easily procrastinated a whole year now feels extremely urgent, but probably won't happen today. Write a whiney blog, inexplicably using the third person for an entire paragraph. Blame it on the aforementioned medications.

Whew. Well now that I've got THAT out of my system, let's move on to more interesting other matters.

1. Colleen posted a blog today about "Keeping the Holiday Bitter at Bay" and it really resonated with me. This is my fourth holiday season in the infertility club-- my senior year, if you will. (Only time will tell if I go on to graduate this year, or start straight in on Infertility Grad School. I wonder how long it takes to get a PhD in this crap?) I'm a seasoned pro, right? Unfortunately, that probably won't make it any easier. What does make it easier is the amount of fellow fertility-challenged friends' phone numbers I've collected over the years. I've sent many a panicked text in the midst of holiday (who am I kidding...ANY day) emotional meltdowns to other ladies who know exactly what I'm feeling...and it makes me feel SO much better and less alone. Anyway. That's my tip for today: when bitterness starts taking over, text someone who can be bitter with you!

2. I was going to get my hair cut today and it was going to look awesome. So right now, imagine that this is me showing you a picture of my new 'do. It is perfection. And then you tell me I look just like Zooey Deschanel except way cuter!! And I humbly thank you for your kind words.

3. In a complete contrast to what #1 would have you believe, last night I had an absolutely amazing time at my church's annual Thanksgiving dinner/party. In addition to lots o' food, I took my Big Girl Camera with me last night, thinking I could spend time taking (ok- attempting to take) beautiful food pictures, candid pictures of people having fun, etc. As it turned out, though, I actually took exactly ZERO pictures and never even took my phone out of my purse because I was actually-- wait for it-- having so much fun just BEING there and chatting with people, I never wanted to stop to do something else. I know I probably sound like a jerk that this even surprises me, but it is what it is. Big social gatherings like this can often be really lonely situations when everyone is focused on kids and plans and other things that just generally serve to remind me of what I don't have. So over the years I've developed various coping mechanisms, like being that girl texting in the corner (see #1!), or wandering around taking pictures. Or being stuck like glue to Matt. And last night I did NONE of those things! I was so thankful for good conversation with lots of different folks, and honestly not hardly a minute of my usual angstiness. Thank You God for that-- I really needed a wonderful night of enjoying the people I love. And I got it. Hallelujah. :)

4. I've tried TWO Pinterest tips lately that have been majorly successful-- and FREE! I'd be remiss not to share:

Source: thecraftpatch.blogspot.com.au via Erika on Pinterest

So this "miracle tub cleaner" made by mixing equal parts dish soap and vinegar? TOTALLY WORKS. And even though every single tutorial swears you must use the BLUE DAWN dish soap...well, I decided to give it a whirl with what I had on hand, which happened to be purple Palmolive. And it still worked like a boss. And trust me, I had high expectations because I HATE cleaning tubs and I LOVE buying cleaning products (don't judge me). And it blew me away that this worked better than any product I've ever bought (and I've bought them all) and required absolutely none of my brute strength. I'm a fan for life.

Secondly, I was sucked in by the amazing testimonials of people swearing by the Oil Cleansing method for skincare. I have horrible, awful skin. For a few years it was slightly better (although never good), but for the last six months or so it has become really bad again. I've tried as many different products as I've been able to afford. Nothing's helped. This method is cheap-to-free and sorta made sense the way it was described, so I decided to try. I haven't been able to locate any cold-pressed castor oil, so I've been using a mixture of jojoba oil I had on hand and EVOO. I've been doing it for 4 nights, and so far I must say-- I'm impressed. I'll give it another week or so and if I keep being impressed, maybe I'll show you some before-and-afters. Maybe. Except I forgot to take before pictures. But I took some a few months ago before starting a different (VERY EXPENSIVE AND OVERHYPED) product, which didn't do anything at all for me, so I figure that those "befores" look pretty much exactly like I did on Thursday since nothing's really changed in the months since I took them.

5. I have three unwatched episodes of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills on the DVR and you better believe I'll be making good use of this sick day and spending some quality time with my favorite rich girls. 

6. My Canadian blogger pal Natasha sent me a big ol' box of Canadian junk food that I received on Friday. This was amazing because a) I freakin' got a big ol' box of junk food, and b) it's Canadian junk food, which is most definitely healthier than American junk food. So far I have basically devoured two coffee/chocolate candy bars and a bag of dill pickle-flavored chips. And I've marveled at how things are written in English and French on all of the packaging. FRENCH! I didn't even know anyone KNEW that language anymore, much less labeled packages with it (except for maybe in France, of course). My whole world revolves around English and Spanish, so I just assumed everyone else's did, too. Oh you funny neighbors to the north with your funny choices in second languages.

That's all I've got. Off to watch some Really Important TV, scrutinize my skin in the mirror, and think about how awesome my hair will look when I get it cut. Busy day!