The Zombie Cinderella

So I get out of the ER. I’m groggy from mass amounts of pain killers, and tired from a day with a spasming belly. It’s funny how pain makes you tired, and combined with the drugs, I’m not walking in a straight line. I collapse facedown in bed, not even bothering to get under the covers.

-Buzz- 

I look down at my iphone 5, it’s a text from a guy friend, we’d kept missing each others phone calls over the weekend trying to catch up.

“Hey! You want to talk?”

“Sorry, just got out of the hospital. I was stuck in the ER all day and I’m on a lot of morphine.” I figured that would be enough to send him scurrying. He has the same habit of being incredibly busy that I do.

“Alright, but can I call and ask one question that will make you feel better?”

“Sure, but be prepared for a nonsensical answer : )”

That was our conversation verbatim. I had to look it up because I don’t actually remember that much. So my friend Ridge is in NROTC, which is a precursor to the Navy. And once a year, they have the Navy Ball. Which is what he asked me to. And, despite already having been home a month and gone through surgery, I said yes. So, these are my trials and tribulations as a zombie princess.

Ok, enough scary zombie things. Researching online for these pictures are going to give me nightmares.

As weird as this sounds, his invitation actually came at the perfect time. It’s given me something to look forward to instead of months of just sitting around and taking medicine. I go to bed at 9:00 because I only have x amount of weeks before the ball and I want to be as healthy as possible.  I get to spend hours giggling with Pie while looking for gowns (modcloth and Anthropologie surprisingly had the best). So here our some of our favorites (that we didn’t pick but definitely served as eye candy).

I would buy this instantly A) if it weren’t so expensive and B) If I didn’t already have a great dress at home. But you can dream right?

So indie, so cute, and so…. white. I read the comments (half were brides) and realized I didn’t want to scare my poor friend to death. But it’s just sooooooo ack adorable

Just found this one. Not buying it, but this is my (and your) excuse to look at pretty dresses : )

In all honesty, I almost bought this one. it has that perfect blend of formal and dancibility. Plus, it kind of takes your breath away.

I think there is some chemical in the female brain that just pumps out the serotonin when theres a pretty dress around. They’re definitely rarer than one might think, I’m shocked and appalled by the amount of ugly dresses in the world. Especially the gowns. There are too many rhinestones, they’re too tight, and that silly mermaid fit comes up all the time!

Well, the dress is done. But there’s this problem that haunts the darkest recesses of my X chromosomes. Make up. Dagnabit, it just isn’t a good thing. I mean, it’s a skill. And it’s one I think men just assume we know, maybe they think it develops during our gestation or something. Either way, it totally didn’t with me. I just know there’s a fine line between looking like Taylor Swift and Snooki. Between being a princess or a pumpkin.

So, panic ensued when I realized that I was going to a Navy ball, with all the pomp and circumstance. And I had to look like a put together adult woman (albeit a 20 year old one). Pencil liner? I can do that. Lip stain? Yeah maybe. But liquid liner that will stay in place all night with complementary eyeshadow? Pssshaw dream on.

Not to mention foundation. Gah. Texted my older sister in a panic, and she forced me to go to Macy’s and get a tutorial in using Clinique. Blush, foundation, all the primers in the world, and the whole shebang. It works, but it’s difficult. Pie tried doing a spontaneous eye design for her high school project on China, done in 15 min no mistakes. Dang artists. Dang my shaky hands. It’s getting easier. But our friend turned to me the other day and told me I need to practice every day, twice a day, before I’ll get good at it. So, it’s getting there. Flawless skin and lovely lashes are just around the corner, I think.

Hah, last problem, hair. For the past few years I’ve had a boy’s short haircut. It was easier to deal with when I first got sick and was constantly feverish. Plus, it’s wicked cute with dresses. But I grew it out this summer and I decided to take a crash course on hair. And who better to look to than a fashion icon of the century? Grace Kelly

As Mika sings…
“I tried to be like Grace Kelly
But all her looks were too sad
So I try a little Freddie
Ive gone identity mad!”

Hah, it’s a great song. For the past few weeks I’ve been looking at her hair with great jealousy and interest.

I personally think this was a set up. She probably woke up with perfect hair. I mean, people do not become princesses of Morocco by being very good at faking it. She was the real deal, gorgeous and sophisticated. Luckily I found a video for those of us who aren’t so lucky.

So I’m teaching myself to use a Remington Hair Setter. Lets just say the first few attempts made me look like Shirley Temple. Pie nearly died and when I told Ridge he had a slightly panicked note in his voice. What? Looking like Shirley Temple isn’t the goal here? Heheh : )

Eh, so I’m a brunette with circles under my eyes from being on medical leave. So what? For one night, I get to be a princess. I get the chance to forget I’m really a zombie. And I think we all deserve that, to feel pretty for a moment. So as much as I joke that this is a lot of nonsense, I secretly like it. I hope you guys have ways you get to feel pretty/handsome/cute/awesome for a little while. Because we were made to be so. And I think we get down on ourselves a little too often about feeling sick and gross. So, look out for experiences in your life you can make special. Because we have to put some effort in too. Anyways, hope you guys have excellent weekends and hopefully more posts will ensue!

Be Well,

Teddy

Shenanigans

So… we manage to have awkward conversations rather regularly…

Teddy: Is the red toothbrush yours? Because I’ve accidentally used it a couple times.

Pie: *mouth drops in utter horror*

later that day

Pie: So, do you ever have the problem where you’re driving, and from far away you see a runner. And then you say to yourself, ‘man, look at the smexy runner!’ only to realize when you get closer that they’re like 75 years old?

Teddy: The problems we have living in an old person town.

and that night,

Teddy: wow, you have a really beautiful whistle

Pie: bwahahahaha *continues whistling rather self consciously

I don’t know how it happens, but I highly doubt our conversations would be considered acceptable in polite society. Kind of like when we take creeper photographs of our little kid friends when they’re asleep so we can blackmail them during Vacation Bible School. This is all hypothetical of course : )

Speaking of Vacation Bible School, we’re currently researching projects to decorate our room for VBS. Well, I’m supposed to be. I’m actually writing this. There are only so many ways to make a paper mache fish. Well, thats not true. You’d be alarmed with the amount of crafty stuff you can find online. Pinterest is particularly dangerous to a creative fiend like Pie. Eventually she just succumbed to drawing mass amounts of Dr. Seuss fish.

The one thing you don’t understand is that she looks at a picture and reproduces them PERFECTLY. It’s sickening. This random picture I got off the internet has got nothing on her. Regretfully, her talents are better spent drawing. I am left to cut them out, which results in MASSIVE hands cramps. I would like to kindly murder whoever drew his creatures. They have mass amounts of detail and are super spiky.

So this is what we have been up to lately. VBS, and dressing up like pirates/witches and wizards from Harry Potter for the youth events at the library. We volunteer and help out the librarians there. Pie and I have come to the conclusion that we have finally gotten to the point where we have no shame. I’m not entirely sure how long this has been going on, but having to walk through town fully dressed as a Harry Potter character so we could teach Hogwarts summer school sort of brought that home.

All summer, we’ve been doing everything together.  And then suddenly, she had to go back to school. Which means we have to keep in touch via pinterest and texting. She’s currently helping me dress up my dorm room for next semester. Well, we’ve always shared a room. So it seemed rather natural for me to text her at midnight with an awesome idea.

Teddy: Just had an idea as I was falling asleep. What if someone covered their ceiling with old scarves? They could have this cool, ripply, layered effect.

Pie: You should be asleep! Bad Teddy! It could be done right… but done incorrectly it could look like a whore’s room

Teddy: Where do you have all this information about whore’s bedrooms??! night.

Pie: I’ve seen movies ok? it’s not something I’m proud of.

Yes, that was verbatim. Maybe you won’t find it as funny, but it’s how we pass our time. Kind of like how when we drink our broth in the morning we say we’re going to our brothel.

My favorite facebook back and forth was when we were actually in the same room.

Teddy: um Pie? I forgot to tell you this, but I was accidentally on your facebook yesterday and clicked your new friend requests and ___ friended you

Pie: Thats weird. Why would he friend request me?

Teddy: Probably because when I was on your account yesterday I liked his comment.

Pie: But I’m not friends with him! How could I have liked his comment?

Teddy: I was liking my own status…

In case you haven’t noticed, Pie is really funny. So funny you that even when you’re mad as anything at her, she can make you laugh. Like just tonight, we were on the phone and she was narrating our our cockatiel’s love for me.

Cinnamon the cockatiel: *screams* I’M DESCENDED FROM THE DINOSAURS! RAWR!

She’s truly a fearsome thing to behold.

Granted, these conversations usually happen when one of us is intensely sleep deprived (yay time zones!) but we find them amusing. If our humor didn’t make you crack a grin, well, you probably won’t like the youtube videos we’ve been watching lately. So good luck. And so long and thanks for all the fish.

Oh, a few random things I’ve noticed I’ve noticed: 1. on July 10, 2012 we received precisely 2,189 views. Hoping there weren’t that many people with POTS reading our blog (wait, let me rephrase that, I hope there are not that many people suffering from POTS) I naturally went and investigated. I’ve mentioned before that our blog really attracts people looking for Happy Birthday pictures. Sure enough, we attracted over two thousand birthday wishers. That’s a ton. Literally. Apparently July 10th is a very auspicious day. 2. Pie and I share precisely 100 friends on facebook. Thats alarming and makes me want to go hide under a rock somewhere. 3. Our blog has gotten pinned so often on pinterest due to our supermegafoxyhot pictures, we can be searched and have our own page. Like a boss.

Ok, onto the funny videos.

Warning: All of these have some language and questionable sexual references. But they’re funny enough that Pie literally almost peed herself. I’m not kidding, I had to pause it while she sprinted to the bathroom she was laughing so hard at the second one.

this last one made me think of this meme:

Pie also wanted to include this last picture.

That is all. Have a splendiferous day!

-Teddy & Pie

Desert-ed

This is a long overdue update, but I wanted to tell you that I survived field school : )

This is Teddy by the way, Pie would never be so foolish as to go and live in a place for 5 weeks where there was no wi fi, limited electricity, AC, water pressure, communication with the outside world. She’s just smart that way. Me? I’m not so smart. That being said, I had the time of my life.

I was about 45 minuted away from Winslow, AZ. And let me tell you about Winslow, it’s in the middle of nowhere. They had a Wallmart and a street dedicated to “Sittin’ On the Corner in Winslow Arizona” from that Eagles song. That was literally it. I lived with about 20 people in an old ranch, stayed in a cabin with 7 people in wooden bunks and excavated for 8-11 hours every day. And that was my life. It was weird, because I never thought I’d be well enough to go. Not in a million years. I researched in in Fall semester for a class assignment, applied last minute, and brought a bouquet of flowers to the professor who wrote a good enough letter to get me in. But none of those things were really holding me back, what was holding me back was my health. For the past 3 years I’ve been sitting, waiting, and aching to be somewhere else. This was one of the first times I got to sit, look around, and realize that while yeah, it’s been a long time coming, I was incredibly blessed.

And the weird part? All my limitations just sort of melted away. I walked for miles in the (literally) blistering sun, painstakingly scanning the ground for artifacts, and there was nothing to see but the sky. And lots of monstrously large centipedes. But I was rescued by my professor thank heavens.

(That’s not me in the picture…did you really think I was a man with a white beard? Hmm? Did you?!?!)  It wasn’t just physically exhausting (there were lots of afternoon pass out sessions the first two weeks) but mentally draining. We had lectures every night after dinner, math homework (I came to the ghastly realization that math is actually useful), and paperwork. Our work was being painstakingly documented, every lithic (remnant of a stone tool), or pottery sherd (commonly known as a shard) was crucial to understanding this people we were studying from the 1200s.

I was useful, I was GOOD at what I was doing, and I got to push myself to the brink every day. I had hours of physical labor, and so many nights spent perched on a fence post watching a herd of bison be drenched with color by the sunset.

Writing about it sounds crazy for a POTS kid. I’m not healthy, but I FELT healthy. The miles I walked in shifting sands made my legs really fit. That, combined with my anti embolism stockings and that fact I drowned myself with gatorade meant the blood got to my head most of the time. We passed out every night at 8-9, woke up at 5. I had a regular sleep pattern my body fell into naturally. It was literally tailor fit for me. I swear I didn’t dream it. The funny thing is, I almost felt like I did. I would have continuous de ja vu moments from the years spent dreaming about adventure and my goals. Every walk, every run, was aimed towards this. Literally, that was sometimes the only thing that kept me from sitting on the ground panting. That drive and desire that I was going to beat this, POTS is curable and I wanted to live. And not just live like I had been doing, in stolen moments from my syndrome, but rather brilliantly and endlessly.

No, it wasn’t the pyramids.

But that wall I discovered? Those features that littered the body of my pit? They are more dear to my heart than all the treasures of Giza and Luxor. I’m not sure when it was, maybe week 3? But I woke up. I remember having a lecture in archaeozoology and writing furious notes late at night. I started jotting down notes in the margin of my pages, to memorize the human skeleton (and have dad help me tell apart separate bones), to keep up with my Greek, to study. And I realized I was looking forward to my future. That I craved more knowledge, how I wanted to work for it! That it was well within my grasp. I could do something to obtain it. That I was in the middle of an adventure.

You see, I had always sort of pictured adventure like a train. Something far off, something I couldn’t have right now. Something where everything good happened. Because in all the books I love, murder, mystery, intrigue, it all happens on a train. It’s the crux. I love trains, the first one I went on was an overnight to London from Glasgow and I couldn’t sleep all night I was so excited. That was a segway: but roller coasters, trains, excavations, they were dream stuff for me.

It was weird, incredibly weird, to realize that I was getting something I had worked for. I value working hard higher than winning or obtaining results. Before I was sick, I didn’t. All that mattered to me were the things I could write on paper. You can’t write walking for 5 minutes a day as your exercise on your resume. I read somewhere it takes something like 4 times the amount of energy for a person with POTS to stand as it does for a healthy one. Four. It’s like we’re broken marionettes.

Broken marionettes that are expected to stand.

I was talking about Pie and SATs yesterday, and talking about my experience sometimes working with no foreseeable benefits. She asked what was the point of killing yourself for a D in Biology when you knew you weren’t improving? And I said, Because I had the satisfaction of knowing I tried my hardest. I dunno. It’s the same answer I gave myself when I did 10 min of walking on the elliptical. Or when I did morning stretches and toe lifts that didn’t seem to get any easier. Because you have to ask yourself that every day, every moment. You have to sort of have faith that someday it will get easier. That you’re working for something. Even if you can’t see it just yet.

But I got to see it. And taste it, and I know that it’s real. You’ll get better. You will live your dreams.

And have awkwardly tan knee caps.

Because sometimes, things like anti embolism stockings leave a mark. I like to think they make you incredibly interesting. I think my favorite remark was, “Oh. I thought you were just the kind of person who wore flamboyant, high socks.” When hearing something like that, all you can do is lean back and laugh. Oh, and no those aren’t my legs. They’re someones else’s, but I was so intrigued that knee tans were such a widespread problem I thought I’d insert it. I didn’t exactly imagine I’d have to do make all these weird additions to my dream like 4 bottles of gatorade a day and wearing boys shirts so we wouldn’t desiccate out in the sun. But ah well, what would be the fun in life if we could plan it?

Anyways, I am happy. And I wanted to make sure you knew that you will be too. Pie and I are being drowned by babysitting opportunities and working at the library, so thats why our posts have been infrequent at best. Fear not, several are in the makings.

Be Well!

-Teddy

PS: Also, I found these on the internet awhile ago. But here are some nerdy archaeology memes.

Heehee, Pie has started to call me India Jones

and the last one is strangely accurate:

PPS: I also read a great book called “The Monsters of Templeton” about an archaeology student and a small town. It’s brilliant. Anyone with an ounce of soul and a spot of humor should read it. That is all.

The Only Failure Is Never To Try

Hey guys! It’s Pie, I have two questions. #1 Are you a failure? Be honest! Do you consider yourself a failure? Are you a POTS failure?

#2 Do you try to get better? Do you strive for your recovery by hard work?

My first question has a right and wrong answer. But you knew that didn’t you? I hope for your sake you said that no, you are not a failure. If you took a moment to figure out if you are a failure or not we have a problem. You should immediately know you are not a failure. Question two doesn’t have a right or wrong answer. One answer is just more frowned upon than the other. It’s vital to your recovery that you try to get better. If you consider yourself a failure we have a big problem. Because that’s extremely toxic for your mind. If you think you are in fact “failing” you are doing more harm than good. Don’t feed your mind that kind of poison. It does squat for your recovery. Most of us during some moment in our life have used that mindset sadly. With POTS it’s so easy to start living in a dark place. Everything in your life has turned upside down and NOTHING seems to be making you feel better. Since nothing helps, you stop trying. I did the same thing but I was only 10. I didn’t know what to do. I thought if I rested more I would recover. If you believe with every fiber that you are a failure I desperately want to change that. I don’t want you to live out your life feeling that way. You need to try to recover and strive for your health. You can’t get better by doing nothing. You can still drink tons of water and eat salt. If you can’t exercise try drinking fluids and putting more salt in your diet. No maybe it doesn’t seem like much but what do you have to lose? You might have to go to the bathroom more often? It’s just a step, a step that can help you get better.
One of my favorite songs is called “Things You’ve Never Done” by Passenger.

“Cause you’ve blown out all your candles one by one
And you curse yourself for things you never done
Now your grandson blonde haired blue eyed handsome
Calls you up from London and sits and asks you why
So your answer don’t be scared of failure
For the only failure is never to try”

When I have moments in my life that I am unprepared for I think of these lyrics. I remember going on my first date with a guy and I was pretty afraid. I wrote these lyrics in my journal to capture how I was feeling. I really didn’t know if I liked this dude and my stomach was filled with a parade of hyped up butterflies. Now, why is Pie talking about her first date and trying to relate it to lyrics? Well, they inspired me. Sometimes I find inspiration in really random places. In this song it highlights that the only failure is never to try. You can’t give up on your recovery. What’s important is that you know that you don’t deserve this idiotic illness. I don’t deserve this, Teddy doesn’t deserve it, none of us do. But me acknowledging this fact doesn’t make me less sick.

“But you are not alone in this
And you are not alone in this
As brothers we will stand and we’ll hold your hand
Hold your hand
And I will tell the night
Whisper, “Lose your sight”
But I can’t move the mountains for you” Timshel by Mimford & Sons

I know I can’t prevent you from feeling like a failure….or even motivate you to get better. But Teddy and I want to be there for you. I want you to get better. I wouldn’t wish this sickness on my worst enemy. I know how awful it is to live a life that you feel like is controlled by someone else. Whomever is trying to control my body I am going to give them a bloody battle. No way in heck am I giving up that easily. I am going to do everything I can to take back my life. Whatever the cost may be. I am not a patient person at all. I don’t want to wait for things to change I want to change them now. If we lived in a perfect world I would be able to get better by snapping my fingers together (bummer…I can’t snap). I have to wait. It just makes me work harder for my goal. What’s your goal? What’s the one thing in your life you have lost that you are desperate to get back? Do you want to be able to play with your children (who constantly get up and down which makes you dizzy), do you want to run until your body aches with happiness, do you want to read a brilliant book (without being too tired to do so), do you want to play tennis? What do you miss? I think you can get those things back 🙂 Like the song, I can’t move a mountain for you but I will be there for you and hold your hand throughout the journey. Please don’t be afraid. I know your body is a scary place right now. You and your body need to become balanced once again.

Like a human seesaw! I just compared you and your health to a seesaw…you are so welcome. I get afraid too my dear reader, I am frightened and tired but I’ve got a fight in me! I want to get better and I am desperate to get better. I am getting better. I am so so much better. My progress is a really good motivator for me. It’s okay if you aren’t there yet and can’t visibly SEE your progress. I’ve been sick 7 years and now I can see it much more clearly. Crap….7 years, that’s a really long time 😥 What a depressing number. But in actuality I have come a long way. It’s been a slow incline from how I felt when I was 10 until now. But I am so grateful that I am writing you about my incline in health not my decline. We can get better and we can beat this. My years of being sick are showing me that now.

You can be your own inspiration. I sound a bit self oriented by saying that but I don’t mean it in that way. I personally only know ONE person (besides Teddy) with POTS. You might not know anyone with POTS. It’s hard to find someone who understands and someone who you personally know with that same illness. If someone can’t be your inspiration then you can become your own source of motivation. Since I am quoting things left and right here goes another one. “Some walks you have to take alone.” That is from The Hunger Games. It can be lonely because you are the only person who can make you feel better. We all have moments that we feel the weight of our life pushing down upon our shoulders. This burden can’t be fixed by getting advice from a friend or a magazine. Most people don’t have a clue what POTS is. Why should they? I didn’t even know what it was. Heck, I don’t know about most chronic illnesses. I only found out what POTS was 2 years ago. I have had POTS for 7 years and had NO CLUE! The little bugger tricked me! Truthfully my sickness didn’t need a name I just wanted it to have a treatment. Thankfully, POTS has a treatment. You just have to take the first step. It’s not an illness you have to wait out. You can’t wait for it to just ‘poof’ and disappear! That’s not really how life works that is just how the movie Scott Pilgrim Versus The World Works 🙂

We have to work for our days of energy! They will come. Your mind controls everything. If you give up in your mind your body will also give up. I don’t want that to happen. It’s frustrating when you don’t see a clear boost of energy! On some days its like hitting your head against a brick wall hoping the wall will come crumbling down. A positive and happy mind is what you need. Teddy and I are quite jolly silly sleepy creatures who are enjoying life. Nah, it’s not always easy but life really isn’t easy for a lot of people. You are strong. I believe full heartedly that we can get through this together. It doesn’t matter if Teddy and I know you or if we have met through you reading this blog. During bad situations you have to make the best out of them. We need each other very badly. Don’t listen to the little person in your head telling you, you can’t. I assure you can or at least someday you will be able to. Because, the only failure is never to try. Let’s try shall we? No failure for us! We only will accept excellence! If you didn’t know POTS normally affects girls who are high achievers. That’s a compliment all in itself! We are such supermegafoxyawesomehot creatures. We are high achievers and pretty awesome (if you ask me). We of all people will be able to defeat POTS! Didn’t you read what I said about high achievers! Others might not be able to beat it but we sure can. No pressure because we can totally do this 🙂

Until I highly achieve again ❤
Pie

“To Sleep…” Photo by Khavi

I ate 39 spicy rolls off the floor….

Right, so as you may have guessed, this is a post just to make you smile. I’m feeling a little sleepy, and am half way through a serious post. But I figured if I needed a brain break you might too.

I love That 70s Show. Pie showed it to me and it’s freaking addictive. So skip the first two minutes of this and it’s just spectacular. Here it is!

And Pie sent me this funny video awhile ago, but I just discovered it and it makes me giggle

Especially since my cat does that all the freaking time. He’s just that silly.

Speaking of silliness, I wanted to share something that has made my day for awhile now. Don’t ask me why, but we can see the search terms people put in google to direct them to The Misses Pots. But the funny thing is that it’s rarely anything to do with POTS, nor do they generally makes sense. So I’m showing the best, I honestly look at the statistics just so I can see the silly things people type into search engines.

1. Voldemort. “Voldemort headphones”, “Voldemort jokes”, “Voldemort wants ice cream” “Team Voldemort”  I kid you not, that’s just a smattering of them. This confuses me on a fundamental level. I think the second to last one is my favorite.

2. “How to make paper roses” this is a common one. I think our generation is incapable of making them. Yet they’re a popular commodity, the people have spoken! Shame google keeps sending them here. Must really crush all their hopes and dreams.

3. Aristocats. The best one was “kitten pain in aristocats” What kind of sadists read this blog??!

4. Happy Birthday. Nearly 1500 times. I’ve ceased to be amazed by that.

5. Monsieur Poirot. And every spelling combination possible thereof. Oh Poirot you dog. Diverting people to our humble blog. This makes me happy, apparently I’m not the only one in the world who reads Agatha Christie. I just might be the only one that can spell that character’s name.

6. “Crazy cat people” you have come to the right place!

7. “Teddy I love you” aw shucks. It’s so soon, I don’t even know your screen name yet!

8. “Pedialyte for horses” …? I see why you’re directed here, but why are you asking such a thing?

9. Jim Hawkins from the Disney movie Treasure Planet. People love him. I didn’t even know that movie was so popular. Of course, he’s voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, so why should I be surprised?

10. “mushroom jokes” I want to be friends with you. So badly. Just so you will tell me jokes about my favorite vegetable.

Ok, so I used to love Safetysuit. Honestly, they’re pop at its finest. They’re like Onerepublic before they became big. So when a free giveaway on itunes appeared by them I was kind of psyched. And the lyrics are awesome for POTS. When I get sick I get angsty, dunno why. I guess it’s just a throwback to the situational depression I experience during my first couple years of POTS. I listened to a lot of Breaking Benjamin, especially their album “Dear Agony” Take that as you will. Anyways, ignore that tangent.  Here are the lyrics.

“These times will try hard to define me/ And I’ll try to hold my head up high/ But I’ve seen despair here from the inside/ And it’s got a one track mind/
And I have this feeling in my gut now/ And I don’t know what it is I’ll find/ Does anybody ever feel like,/You’re always one step behind?/
Now I’m sitting alone here in my bed I’m waiting for an answer I don’t know that I’ll get/ I cannot stand to look in the mirror I’m failing/ I’m telling you these times are hard/ But they will/
And I know there’s someone out there somewhere/ Who has it much worse than I do/ But I have a dream inside, a perfect life I’d give anything just to work/ It’s like I’m only try’na dig my way out/ Of all these thing I can’t/
And I am/ Sitting alone here in my bed/ I’m waiting for an answer I don’t know that I’ll get

I cannot stand to look in the mirror/ I’m failing/ I’m telling you these times are hard/ But they will pass,/They will pass/ They will pass/ These times are hard/ But they will/
These times will try hard to define me/ But I will hold my head up high/
Sitting alone here in my bed/ I’m waitng for an answer I don’t know that I’ll get/ I cannot stand to look in the mirror/ I’m failing/ I’m telling you these times are hard/ But they will pass/
And I know there’s a reason/ I just keep hoping it wont be long ’til I see it/ And maybe if we throw up our hands and believe it!/ I’m telling you these times are hard/ But they will pass/ They will pass/ They will pass/ These times are hard/ But they will pass.”

So I really like it. Because sleepy days are the days you can go into your sad place. When that happens, I pray. Because it’s comforting to know that I’m not in control. That there is a better future, and even a better now if I look for it.

SPEAKING of looking for good things, I have something I would like to share. I was accepted into an Archaeology field school! So this summer I will be on a dig learning how to be an archaeologist. This will entail a month of being in a pit, learning to expertly use a trowel and brush. I’m probably going to come back blonde there will be so much sun. That’s strange. Teddy bears can’t be blonde. Maybe I’ll wear a hat. Anyways, this is a really big moment for me because of a few things. One, it’s competitive to get into. Two, it’s pretty athletic. This is important because I thought I wouldn’t be healthy enough to do this for years. Last year is when I started getting noticeably better, but I was still walking and it was quite a struggle. I almost had to quit school a few times. But when I was stuck inside, I would read archaeology mysteries by Amelia Peabody. And then, the days I felt well enough to walk, I would shut my eyes and pretend that I was in Egypt walking across a lifeless desert.

So, these times are hard. But they will pass. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Be Well,

Teddy

 

Scream

Pie: When you want to scream because:

You feel like you are watching your life melt away while you lay in your bed

You are too sick to do what you love to do

When even the easiest things are out of reach

When you feel like your friendships are passing you by

When you look in the mirror and only see weight gain

When you can’t get past the ugly half moons underneath your eyes.

When you are falling behind on schoolwork and you are too tired to complete it.

When all your body wants to do is sleep

When you just want to your body to feel as good as your taste buds (when eating chocolate )

You feel defined by your illness

You think of the people who have it worse than you do

You don’t feel independent you feel caged.

When all you can do is scream….

My advice to you is plain and simple, just scream. It makes you feel better, really. So, go for it. Let out one hardy scream. Scream and let the walls feel your pain. I’ve done it at least twice this week. See why I hate POTS? See why I hate chronic illnesses? When you can only express your struggle by screaming. Man it’s been a hard month. When I get sick it takes weeks. First off I just feel dreadful for a couple of weeks and THEN I get sick. I got sick with this awful case of bronchitis. I coughed up a bit of blood and my Mom and sister almost took me to the hospital. But I was way too sick to notice. It was kind of funny though, my horse got bronchitis from the dust in his hay so while I was sick I was outside round-penning him (making him run in circles for exercise in a round pen) and he and I were coughing and coughing and Teddy was laughing and laughing it was hilarious! Now you might ask what kind of sadist makes their horse run in circles when he is sick? Well, we weren’t told he was sick we were told that he had dust in his lungs so he needed to run to get it out. SORRY PACO!!!! He and I are totally over being sick just in case you were wondering ❤  My family made it so much better though. They would make me delicious food and take care of me because they are amazing. Months like these are the types I keep hidden from my friends and people at school. No one needs to know because I am not the person I am when I am sick and dead asleep in my bed cocoon. I know it’s not normal for a 17 year old to be sleeping at 2 in the afternoon while other girls are LIVING and laughing. I make the best out of those naps I must say. I listen to the best music and make sure to have the sweetest dreams. I have a warm kitty to keep me company and enough tea to sink a ship.

When it is too much for you just scream it out. Your cat will understand, or at least leave the room and judge you. But they have every right to judge us we are screaming like crazy people (oh wait that’s me). Remember to think about the people in your house before you start screaming, I tend to scream when I am alone. I do this to avoid scaring my parents to death. If I screamed they would think I fell off a cliff……(no I don’t have a cliff in my house but STILL!) Just keep in mind (while you are screaming) that with POTS you are on cloud nine one week and sick as a dog the next. So, while you are in your sickly dog state think of cloud nine but not vice versa because negative thoughts are NO GOOD! Yeah they slip in anyway but don’t encourage the little boogers! It’s like feeding cockroaches inside your house. Do you want to have cockroaches living in your soul? Hmm? I didn’t think so.

For the most part when I am having good weeks I don’t even think of myself as sickly. I just forget because in all honesty it just is what it is. Yes, I can work to make it better but I can’t dwell on the fact because that’s completely depressing. I don’t like being sad (captain obvious). While living through my “screaming weeks” it can be really scary. But on my good weeks I just enjoy what I have. Every day I work hard to help pave the road for my recovery. I do this without even acknowledging it. I work out, laugh, drink water, eat salt, and I think of these things as the essentials for my life. After a big tennis match I think, ‘okay I need some salt, water, and food’. Train your brain to do this. It takes time but don’t wait because the longer you wait for a change to magically come the longer you will be in that bed.

I know you don’t want to be in your bed. I know that. You know that. Anyone who knows your struggles knows that. One bright side of POTS is if you know how to treat it will get better. You can rely on yourself to reach these goals. You are your own personal doctor. You don’t have a tumor and are relying on the doctors to take it out surgery and relying on medication to make everything better. You may take pills BUT you have to learn how to be your own doctor, your own motivator, your own friend, and your own enemy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you are sick but please just try taking the first few steps on this road. That’s the only way your wishes and dreams of being a healthy foxy person will come true. You want that right? Silly question Pie. You have to crawl to walk and practice to create beautiful music we are so LUCKY to have to work at feeling normal. Mhmm……

But I can scream oh man can I scream. I can scream because sometimes that’s all I can do. And if that’s all I can do why not do it? So my dear readers, enjoy screaming your heads off. Because while you are screaming take heart in knowing I will be doing the exact same thing. Let’s scream together.

Until we scream again ❤

Pie

Cold Feet

Good day my dear Readers. Cool picture eh? It’s called Dishonest Heart. It fits many of our plights all too well.

It’s Teddy again.

Right-oh, to start off the post I wanted to give a radio station recommendation. My favorite station of all time is called Zeilsteen Alternative Radio. It describes itself as playing the Killers, Muse, Coldplay, Radiohead and more. It streams from the Netherlands and you can find it on the iTunes list of stations. Listening to it right now, and it’s pretty splendid.

My topic for today is circulation and cold extremities. The summer I fell ill with POTS an odd phenomenon occurred. I was cold, at the most inappropriate times (reflexively, I was also hot whenever I was dizzy, but we mistook that for being feverish). The chill was odd in itself because it was a pleasant warm summer. My hands and feet were most affected and they soon because a nuisance. Flips flops were impossible, and hands soon made a burrow in my pockets. It wasn’t so much that they were cold, as what that caused. If they were chilled for say, half an hour, they began to itch, swell, and grow hard. My feet would become too swollen to walk upon and my hands would stiffen and become a hindrance in themselves.

My dad has Raynauds syndrome, so we assumed it was a precursor to it. This was well before we went to the Mayo clinic, so all we knew was that my body was going nuts. It hasn’t gone away over the years since, but it has lessened in severity. When I mentioned it to my doctor, he wasn’t surprised and mentioned it was probably due to bad circulation. It sucks, because POTS has so many seemingly random symptoms that it is nearly impossible to figure out what causes what. If you research cold hands and feet, you come up with hundreds of potential life threatening illnesses that serve only to alarm you. So don’t look them up. Ask your doctor in person and show them what you mean. It will save you a lot of anxiety.

Speaking of doctors, my father (who would like to be known as Dr. Papa) explained to me in depth what causes the swelling itself. He says that the autonomic nervous system is responsible for many things, one of which is the circulation lymph. Lymph is a clear to milky white fluid that is in your blood. Blood isn’t one liquid by itself, it’s made of many different proteins. Lymph carries the white blood cells throughout your body. It also tends to leak out of veins and tissues and needs to be pumped by peristalsis (the contraction of muscles). Peristalsis is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. So there you have it, it collects in feet and other places (hands). I may have butchered that, but he promised to write a paragraph in doctor jargon to follow up (which I am holding you to, dad!).

Anyways, if I have it and the wikipedia article mentions it as a symptom, I can’t be the only bloody one in the world with it. So I want this post to assist those of you have to deal with itchy feet. They’re just practical suggestians, but they are useful.

1. Stick your head out the window and see how cold it is. Anything under 70 degrees, wear closed toes shoes. I am not kidding. I could feasibly wear flip flops over 6 months of the year. But I don’t because swollen feet that hurt like heck simply are not worth it. I mean, you don’t even have a cool story to go along with why you’re limping in the first place. “What did you hurt yourself or something?” “Nah, my feet just swell up at odd moments” Great way to make people give you a weird look. So don’t be a soldier and take precautions.

2. Know your classrooms/workplace. Some rooms are downright colder than others. For some reason they roast the math students at my school and freeze the biology students. It’s just how it goes. So try and remember which classrooms are which temperature. It would be a disaster to wear a long sleeved shirt to calculus class. I tried that once. Nearly passed out. Learn from me.

3. Have an arsenol at your disposal. “But Teddy,” you whine, “aren’t sneakers enough?” Nope. No such luck. For example, my favorite sneakers (converse) have holes and little vent thingies in them. Which makes it really, really cold on an off day. I have warm closed toe shoes and colder close toed shoes. I wear them both equally, but the latter need a little bit of help. Lets start off on the easy shoes.

Uggs. You’ll only get weird looks if you wear shorts with them. They’re hard to see under jeans and cords. Plus, they have so many adorable types it can be downright fashionable to wear them in the first place. Also, my favorite invention that Uggs made are the Ugg sneaker. Oh yes, they look like a low top converse and are surrounded by fluff and warm things inside. SUCCESS! That way you won’t be so self conscious. I wear these puppies:

But there are a ton of different colors. These are just the originals (which I POUNCED on a few years ago). You can also buy fluffy inserts to put in your regular shoes.

Leather boots. Yeah, I’m the worst vegetarian ever. But I mean, leather retains heat quite well and boots are really, ridiculously fashionable right now. They help me when I go to the theater with my family and need to dress up. If you haven’t noticed, it’s quite difficult to find closed toed women’s shoes that are dressy. They generally have something peaking out. The ones above are just fun, I don’t actually own a pair. I’m not cool enough to wear them.

Regular sneakers like Toms, Converse, etc. are definitely better than sandals, but I still am affected in them. I have to wear thick wool socks and/or my anti-embolism stockings under them. Plus, socks are wicked fun to slide in. I personally like sliding around in the hallways late at night when no one can see me : ) So thick socks guys ok? I don’t think I’ve ever had an “attack” while wearing the anti-embolism stockings, so you should try them if you can.

By the way, some things to avoid are stepping in puddles, wet grass, and humid days in general. They make everything worse and I don’t know why.

One way to protect your hands is when you go on a run to wear gloves. I generally get too warm half way through the run and take them off, but they help on cold afternoons.

But sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you still get cold feet. Whether you’ve been sitting in a position too long, or misread the weather, your feet and hands just hate you some days. One thing that doesn’t work are anti-inflammatories. Advil, any allergy medicine, etc. do squat for our extremities. What makes them hurt less is a warm bath! 

It doesn’t make the swelling go down any faster, but it stops it from hurting. A cup of tea helps warm up your body too. For some reason whatevers in my belly makes the rest of me change temperature.

Exercise doesn’t help, and running on swollen feet is very painful. So don’t try it. Do you guys have any methods that help? If so, shoot us a comment. I hope your feet are nice and toasty tonight!

Be Well,

Teddy

Dandelion Wishes

Text message of the day

Teddy: How am I? Tired. Jeez, maybe I have a chronic illness or something.

Pie: A chronic illness? Nah, only awesome people get those.

Teddy: Cheers guys!

Ok, so todays post I just wanted to write about things that make me smile no matter what, even if they’re a little foolish and childish.

First on the list is dandelion seeds. Every time I go on a run I find one of these suckers and make a wish. Yeah, usually I wish for the same thing, but it’s also really, really fun to do : ) It’s funny, because there’s this huge fine on our campus for picking flowers, I wonder if next year there will also be a fine for spreading weeds. My dad (who is an exceptionally nice guy) would beg and cajole Pie and I to not blow them all over his lawn. I now sympathize, weeds are a pain in the neck. Except for dandelions. They’re magic.  

There’s always that song that makes you think of happiness, well this is mine. It’s short, only 48 seconds long. But it’s perfect, and it makes me think of hopeful things. It’s not my favorite song, or even band. But it’s special, so I hope you’ll appreciate it. It’s like the modern day version of “Air on a G String”. Try listening to that on a beautifully starry night, you will never think of classical music the same way again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbI-B-hffbM

“Post Cards from Far Away” by Coldplay

This one is a bit more odd. I’m not sure if you have figured this out about me yet, but I love plants. Like, more than is good for me. My friends constantly tease me as they drag me away from plant booths at the local farmers market. But some plants are just more darling than others, and the pea plant is the cutest of all. The elegant tendrils and inquisitive leaves just seem so charming! I’m growing some now in a teapot in my room. I’ll have to upload a picture at some point, these online photos do not do my peas justice.

Ok, this one is a bit more universal. But only marginally mind you. Trains. Not their mechanics, or destinations. Just the fact that to me they represent adventure and excitement. The first time I went on one was a night train to London, and I didn’t sleep all night because I kept waking up thinking “I’m on a train!” In stories, all the exciting things happen on trains. In Harry Potter, Platform 9 and 3/4 would be bustling with magic, owls, and scarcely concealed wizards. In Agatha Christie mysteries, someone is bound to get themself murdered, and it’s up to you to solve it. It’s also a terrible cd by my once favorite band Keane, but that memory rather sullies the magic of trains.

Moving right along to something really tasty, pomegranates! I bought a huge one at the market this weekend and it makes the most perfect snack. Plus, It’s given me something pretty to look at since I’ve been stuck in bed. I feel like pomegranate seeds are more beautiful than any ruby alive, don’t you agree?

I can totally see why Persephone ate a few when Hades offered her some. They might actually be worth a stint in the underworld for. But only maybe.

Kindof alongside the plant thing, new growth makes me smile. A new leaf, gently unfurling is just so delicate and already perfectly formed.

That being said, it was really difficult to find a proper picture of it, so I wonder if most people miss it. I find that hard to believe, because every time I see something as beautiful as this, it reaffirms the existence of God for me.

Buds do it too. They’re just so swollen with innocence and the promise of new life. They’re incredibly hopeful, especially when I’ve fertilized the heck out of my orchids to get to them to bloom 😛

Mushrooms are just adorable (contrary to what Pie believes). I mean honestly, who can look at this and not grin?

But everyone has to have something like this. Some little aspect of their life they love beyond all words. Or something that fills you with wonder, like when you are swimming and suddenly look up to the world above. Those sorts of things. C.S. Lewis describes it really really well in “Surprised by Joy” he describing the same emotion that I have here, “I call it Joy, which is here a technical term and must be sharply distinguished from happiness and pleasure. Joy (in my sense) has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with them, the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again… I doubt anyone who has tasted it would ever, if bother were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world. But then Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is.”

I cannot summarize it any better. So I hope you find Joy this week, even if it’s fraught with other, less lovely feelings. And please, share with me what makes you feel Joy! Ok? Even foolish things, like dresses and the smell of rain. So I would love to hear from you, because focusing on these things are just as important as our medical jargon.

Be Well!

Teddy

AIMazing

Pie: Well that was quite fun, taking AIM tests are very pleasant. Why don’t I wake up at 6 every morning every morning just to take a three hour test I wonder. I might have to think about that one. I hope that you are having a lovely morning….afternoon….evening….night? I don’t really know the time my apologies. Well clearly I had AIMs this week, I am trying to exceed on them (fingers crossed).Waking up early this week kind of made my body shut off. By the time thursday rolled around I had chills and thought I was going to throw up. But on the bright side my alarm didn’t work today so I got to sleep and I stayed home, which was honestly just lovely!!! It’s been a fun few weeks of school though! Lot’s of laughs. The other day my friend and I were reading outside during our english class and some of the boys were outside too and it was one of the most hilarious things to listen to “boy gossip”. We were dying of laughter! You would think that girls are the ones who gossip but I assure you that is not the case. If you have never heard boy gossip I highly recommend it, it is very amusing.

Teddy: By the way, AIMS are a standardized test used in certain states to figure out how intelligent the low life high schoolers actually are in the public school system. If you “exceed” you can garner scholarships. If you fail, well, guess you’ll have to take it again won’t you? It’s like the Groundhogs day of schoolchildren. It repeats itself over and over again 😛

Pie: Exactly! Thank-you, oh kind one. I exceeded on 2 and passed the other two but I almost exceeded on all of them you see!! It was heartbreaking to not exceed on all of them. I am actually a tad distracted because I just read Teddy’s latest post and she had a link to rain noises. They are DIVINE! Oh my goodness It is a bright sunny morning and I am in my own crazy little bubble. I have a new favorite song that my darling Teddy showed me (wow I miss you a lot Teddzies because I am only talking about you……. ❤ )

It’s a really touching song, she showed it to me while I was reading the book series Hunger Games and it seems to fit  the story perfectly. It’s one of those songs that I want to paint to. It also makes me want to drift into a perfect dream. A dream where nothing exists except the melody that has captivated my heart and soul. Yes, a song can do this. I believe songs can do many great things that we can’t even fathom in our state of mind. I am normally drawn to very slow sad songs, because when I was a napaholic I would listen to music that took me on the journey to sleep. My favorite thing is when I am completely asleep but for some reason one song slips through the barrier of dream and reality. It’s a magical moment that is hard to describe unless you have experienced it.

Music is one thing that I can remember during my sickness. I can remember the books on tape I read and the melodies I slept to. Sadly, some of my years are lost to my memory. I don’t really remember much of the end of 4th grade, 5th grade is completely gone I can only remember a couple vague memories. 6th grade was much clearer than 5th that’s for sure, but I can’t remember a ton of it. Sometimes it gets me really upset but I am just happy I am in a different place now. I know how it feels to lose bits and pieces of youth but I also know that I have gained new strength that I didn’t have then.

If you are like Teddy and I, and you rest a lot and are in reality quite sick I recommend listening to books on tape. It’s not cheating to listen to a book opposed to reading it! It’s like watching a movie in your brain except all of the visuals are created by your imagination. The Harry Potter book series is FABULOUS on tape! So is a Wrinkle In Time, The Cay, Anne of Green Gables, Tom Sawyer, and I am sure Hunger Games is great on tape too. Basically any great book is going to be pretty fricken amazing on tape. Get that old BOOM BOOM box out from the garage and go where few have gone before. You will be taken to a new land. I have been on many adventures without leaving the four corners of my room. So technically I do remember those lost years but in a completely different sense than how others would. I lived in Avonlea with Anne, I was standing next to Harry when he destroyed the horcruxes, I trembled when I walked with Meg up to “IT” to save Charles Wallace, I’ve taken trips in the magic tree house, and I have helped Tom Sawyer paint a picket fence. I went on all of these adventures with my beloved pillow who has gotten my through many hard times. I just want to share with you all of the adventures I have taken, and I hope someday you will take them too. If you aren’t well enough to have your own adventures in the real world have your adventures in your mind. Because your mind has no limitations of health or anything else for that matter. You can be whatever you want to be there. No rules to control you, no regrets to keep you back, all you need is a little push in the right direction.

Teddy and I really just want you to get through this as easily as possible. We don’t want you to be alone through this. Because at times Teddy and I were alone during this illness and we didn’t know how to maneuver our way out of the pit. It’s not fair, and trust me I know it. I know it all too well how unfair this struggle can be. Whether you have POTS, anxiety, a cold, or any chronic illness imaginable it is a hard journey. I hope through our blog you can get a little comfort in knowing that you are never alone. Even if we know you or not we want to make sure you know that we want to help you though this, because when it is all said and done sometimes you need someone to give you a hand through life. We are offering you  two sets of hands to hold during this 🙂 I hope you have a day filled with good health, yummy food and fuzzy cats.

❤ Pie

One Comfy Day, coming up!

So you need a day in bed. Preferably one with rain hammering on your window so you will be free of guilt not to go outside. You also need some calm, yet lyrically interesting music, a good movie, exciting book, and some tea that is beyond compare. Look no further, I, Teddy, can arrange it all!

It’s Friday (and if anyone sings that song I’ll become a homicidal maniac)! And we’re all spent. Pie and I both have stomach bugs (guess diseases can be passed over the phone now…) and we can’t be the only ones that need a day in bed.

Step 1: Go to bed. Now. This is non-optional. You’ve been upright for a week now and it’s doing you no good. (By the way, did you know POTS people spend 3 times as much energy standing upright as normal people? It’s like we’re jogging in place at all times, except no ones asking us to become swim suit models). But put some pajama pants on first, preferably flannel. There ya go!

Step 2: You forgot to bring your laptop didn’t you. Utter fail on your part. Now, slide under the covers and put on some perfect music for a fall day. My favorite right now are Bon Iver, but my dear friend is getting me hooked on Angus & Julia Stone. They’re also quite good for a lazy day. But my Bon Iver pandora playlist has exceeded all boundaries (40 hour time limit? pshaw) so I’ve been thieving from my friends’ itunes libraries and have developed quite a good playlist full.

Step 3: But you’re probably feeling guilty right now, about being in bed while it’s sunny and the leaves look so appealingly crunchy. So here’s a guilt-free trick to soothe your frazzled nerves, put on Rainymood off of google and your life will be instantly better. It sounds amazing on top of just about every song, so it’s time to experiment!  http://www.rainymood.com/

Isn’t everything better when you look out your window and all you see is this instead?

Side note, now that RainyMood is on, try it with my favorite song by Bon Iver: Woods. It captures a feeling, a piece of longing tied up in joy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_cePGP6lbU

Step 4: Your mind has been blown by supermegafoxyawesomehot music, but now you need something a little more sustaining. I bring you, a book. I can see the shocked looks on your faces quite clearly through my monitor. Most specifically, a series that will keep you excited for quite a while. I give you, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo!

To be clear, this is not a series that should be read by anyone under seventeen. For everyone over that age level, it is mandatory. I know it was super popular a few years ago, but I didn’t read it. It’s stupid, but if everyone tells me to read it I won’t. I feel like it’s probably mass produced garbage *cough twilight cough* So when my dad told me to read it and that it was already downloaded on my kindle, I gave up. It is a detective/thriller novel, but the mysteries aren’t something we can solve. They’re more like tragedies that are exposed to the light by the protagonist (a journalist in Sweden). The other protagonist is a seriously abused girl who kicks butt in the awesome department. I adore her, she’s not someone you would want to be friends with, but rather someone in your school who you just watch, amazed that she inhabits the same planet.  In Steig Larsson’s first novel they are investigating a girl who has been missing for several decades. It takes over a hundred pages before you get into it, due to some necessary background information, but then you can’t stop. Honest. I read them in a week during midterms, and they really opened my mind to some things I had been ignoring. Small warning, there are several graphic rape scenes in these books. The first especially. The working title of the first was “Men Who Hate Women” and violence is the main theme in all of these. This is not my common fare, but it’s something that everyone should be aware of. Plus it is such an enthralling read, please read it for me.

Step 5: You’re too tired to read any longer (and who could blame you? It’s grown dark and you’ve created a fine bed-nest for yourself). But it’s still too early to go to bed just yet. Now, eat whatever mess you have in the fridge. Now thats out the way, slice up some ginger root for tea and make popcorn in the microwave. Apparently ginger tea is super healthy, but it tastes way too good for that to be true. Douse the tea with honey (want a little tea with all that honey? 😛 ) and climb back to bed. That was exhausting. Now, turn off the music, because you’re about to…

Step 6: Watch The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo! The first movie is one of the best I’ve seen. It’s a dead on interpretation. The second isn’t nearly as good, but worth a view if you have time. The third is much better than the second, but definitely a few hairs short of the first. So, if you’ve read the books (or part of them at any rate) watch the movies. They are on instant play on netflix. If you have read them, watch the first and third movies. They’re totally worth it. The second is useful only if you need the plot. Or you’re SUPER sleepy like I was this week. But then again, isn’t that what this post is about?

Step 7: You probably finished the whole thing didn’t you? It was WAY too good to stop, just like I said. Anyways, shut off your laptop, take your meds, brush your teeth, and go sleep. It’s probably later than you anticipated. Just like this post is longer than I anticipated. So I might head to bed too. *yawn*

Or keep reading. Dunno how you expected to stop in the first place. Guess you have a full night ahead of you, say hi to Micke for me!

Be Well,

Teddy

P.S. g’night!