Dude. Seriously. I'm in awe. But we'll get to that part later.

I went to the gym yesterday and worked my patooty off. According to Google Maps, the closest Gold's Gym here is 16 miles away. It's a trek, that's for sure. The next closest one is 30something miles away. Makes me appreciate the abundance of Gold's at home. Anyway... the gym I went to is pretty new and HUGE. I'm guessing it's so big since they don't seem to have any others in the immediate area. It's so big that one of the employees couldn't remember where the elliptical machines were. I eventually found them upstairs with a stellar view. I could look down to the first floor where all the bikes and treadmills were. Perfect for people watching. My goal was just 20 minutes on the elliptical. I tend to go overboard when I haven't been to the gym in awhile, and then get so sore it's hard to go back soon. I ended up doing 32 minutes, 2 minutes going backwards. Seems so easy, but damn, my thighs were burning during those 2 minutes. I'll have to work on that. Afterwards I headed to the locker room, and whoa, it was beautimous. Insanely awesome. Washed my hands and rinsed my face, and turned around and dum-dumdum, a scale. A real medical type scale. Ooooh, I have an opportunity to see if mom's scale is whacked. It was a couple pounds more than mom's but then again I had just finished guzzling 2 bottles of aquafina. So, mom's scale is actually accurate. 

We have now arrived at the part of awe. I have actually lost about 10-11 pounds in 2 weeks. Crazy. Never happened before. I'm shocked. I'm super pumped. I still don't know what I'm doing different, but maybe it's just cuz I'm not paying much attention to it. So, I will try to continue to not think of it.  Ha, yah, let me think about not thinking about it. Loverly dilemma.

I should be more frantic about Christmas. I don't know why, but I feel like I should be. I'm not. I'm just chilling. Tomorrow I'm going to mail off some packages for my mom at DHL with my nifty discount. I am useful for something I guess. It's over by the gym, so I'm gonna make a stop there too. 

Speaking of... I don't know what the heck is up, or if my mom's scale is just completely whacked, but according to it, I've lost about 10 lbs since I left for Raleigh. I've never lost that much weight in such a short timespan. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not complaining. I'm just baffled. I wish I knew what the heck I've done differently, cuz I would keep doing it.

Eh, I'm doing that thing again -- yanno, boring myself. I'm just trying to get better about updating more often. No matter how trivial it might seem.

On Thursday I flew to my mom's place in Virginia. As Mike was driving me to the airport, I got a phone call from the airline with an automated message saying my flight had been delayed from 2:30pm to 4:10pm. But nothing else was to change, so I was fine. I figure it's not worthing driving back and Mike has to go to work, so I continue on. I have enough books and whatnot to keep me entertained.

I decided to be crazy and went to a bar and got a drink while I was waiting. While chilling, I got another automated message phone call telling me my flight had been delayed again to 5:10pm and I had been booked on a new connection in Atlanta, changing my arrival in Norfolk from 7:37pm to 11:59pm. Yay me. I'm trying to perfect my carefree attitude, so I just sit back and chill some more. I eventually went to the gate and asked the gate lady person if I needed new boarding passes. She then informed me that she had me on standby on 2 earlier flights out of Atlanta, but the later one I was told about was confirmed. Yah, ok, whatever. No big thang, I will get there eventually. 

Finally, I get boarded on the plane around 4:45pm (after 2 gate changes). I arrive in Atlanta at 8:15pm. After deplaning, I realize I have no idea what flight I'm supposed to head towards. The attendants around me weren't that helpful either. So, I decide to head out to my original flight that I still have a boarding pass for. The only problem is when I look at the departure screen it shows as boarding and I'm many many concourses away. I finally find my way to a train, and manage to book it to my gate. So, this is my original connecting flight, but it's running an hour late (atlanta had a ton of fog, backed up all flights all day). I literally get there as they are closing the gate, and ask if I'm still on it. She checks and I'm not, but she's a sweetie, and changes my ticket back to this flight. The only downside I discover upon entering the plane is my aisle seat has been changed to a middle seat between 2 dudes that have been on flights since the previous day all the way from Italy. They were really nice country boys, so it definitely could have been worse. The flight was only 1 hour 5 minutes and I arrived in Norfolk at 10:30ish. Only an hour or so late from my originally scheduled arrival.

Despite all the delays and chaos, it turned out to be ok. I'm trying to get a better attitude about things I can control. I had no control over this, and I never got upset or frustrated. Not that I've been quite that amped in some time. But when I get in situations like this where it feels like somewhat of a test, it still amazes me that I don't get antsy/pissy.

So, I've traveled the most ever in one month for me I think. I gotta say I really like it. Even with all the uncomfortableness of the planes, I just enjoy the time to relax. I read, I listen to music, do puzzles, whatever. That could be a sad statement really. If it takes me being completely cut off from stuff via being 6 miles up to relax and take time for myself, that would just be sad.

Ok, I haven't slept much the past couple days. It's time to sleep. 

I get allergy shots. They are shots filled with stuff that I'm allergic to, like grasses, trees, molds, nuts, etc. I've been getting them for about a year and a half. I'm in my last series of bottles - maintenance - but I'm still creeping up to the maintenance dose.

After getting back from Raleigh last night, I crashed really early. Woke up this morning to go get my shot and to do some shopping for a present for Mike's birthday (which is today). After getting my shot, I went over to Encore Records and got him the KGSR Broadcasts volume 14. I then proceeded to Crate + Barrel to look for something I had in mind. While walking around the store, I started coughing a lot. This is odd, as most people who know me can attest to. I do not cough cuz I really really really hate when other people cough - don't ask, it's just a weird peeve of mine. I thought, hmm weird, but no biggie. Maybe I inhaled some dust or some raunchy old lady perfume. And then it starts to get really difficult to breathe, so I'm coughing a bit more. I also start itching the inside of my ear. I didn't find what I was looking for so I left the store, and started leaving that shopping center. I realized my breathing was worse and my throat was feeling really constricted. I called Mike at home and asked him to have an allergy pill ready for me when I got home cuz I thought I was having a reaction. Of course, Mike, the ever sane one, told me to screw that and go to the ER. I say nono, I just need a Zyrtec. So I zip home at lightning speed, and he's at the door waiting for me. Upon seeing me, he says "oh shit! fuck that, I'm taking you to the ER now!"  Apparently I looked like one of those people in movies who gets stung by a bee and swells up beyond belief. Or, like Will Smith in Hitch after he ate something I think.

We get to the ER, Mike drops me off at the front so I run in and tell them what's going on, and at this point I'm crying cuz it's just starting to hurt so bad. I do not joke when I tell you, they made me fill out forms before doing anything. I was having more and more trouble reading, so once Mike got inside with me he helped me fill them out. Luckily as Mike was finishing that up, a nurse came up behind the admin chica, took one look at me and came running around to get me with a wheelchair. They did all the prelim stuff, blood pressure (crazy low), pulseox (crazy low), heart rate (kinda high), etcetc. Then they took me to another main room. I think they called it the "Crash Room". Dunno what that meant, but I sure got seen quicker than ever in an ER. There was a dude in an area beside me bleeding all over the place, so it must have been a pretty important room. A nurse gets me to take off my top and put on one of their lovely fashion pieces, and in doing so, everyone can see I'm covered in ginormous hive-type things. I start to notice them on my arms too, and they are swelling up like mad crazy too. They give me an IV, take some blood, pump some saline, benadryl, pepcid, and I think a steroid too. Since my BP was so low, they were going to give me epinephrine, but they kept taking it and it was on the rise. The doc said he would like to avoid giving me that cuz it would make me feel like complete ass. A considerate doc, who knew. 

After waiting for a bit, a new nurse comes in and tells me she'll be giving me a breathing treatment. She hooks me up with that. Too bad it wasn't the happyfun breathing stuff. No such luck, just air laced with meds or something.  Doc comes back, declares I look SO much better, but he wants to keep me a little while longer. Wait a bit, more checking, apparently I no longer look like a victim of Rocky Balboa (or even Rocky himself), so I'm told I can go. They give me my scripts and a paper that tells you all these wonderful things about what was wrong with you and what to watch out for and expect. It would apparently be very common if I had another occurrence, but unless it gets as bad, I should be ok. All said and done, we were in and out of there in exactly 2 hours. Excellent, if you ask me. I love Seton Northwest!

Afterwards, I got home, ate a bit, watch a bit of TV next to the fire, and then napped. I feel much better. Not 100% quite yet, but definitely a major improvement.

Um, Happy Birthday Mikey!

So, I'm currently in Raleigh. My co-worker and I arrived here this morning at 10am. I had to wake up at 4am for a 6:35am flight, but it was a direct flight so that made up for it. However, I've never been on a more uncomfortable flight in my life. The heat was so jacked up on this plane. The vents were next to my feet and I felt like I was sticking them directly in a fire. I saw a couple people mention it to the flight dude, but he seemed like a pissy bitch that liked his customers to suffer. So, it never got any better.

Despite all that, once we arrived I was excited because my mom and stepdad had come to visit me, since they are only about 3 hours away. They came in Saturday night to shop and to be here this morning. I called them once I was here so we could meet up. Clint, my co-worker, and I arrived at our hotel and were told we couldn't check in that early. No big thang. My parents arrived a few minutes later and we booked it over to The Streets at Southpoint. My mom wanted me to see this immense pretigious shopping mecca. It was quite nice but didn't house anything I haven't seen 100 times before. We realized quickly there wasn't anything we were interested in eating there, so my mom decided we were going to eat at The Weathervane. It was a great choice. We started out with Fried Green Tomatoes and Shrimp Hushpuppies. My mother and I had Shrimp & Grits, Clint had a Rosemary Ham Grinder, and Perry had Asparagus Tomato Eggs Benedict. Everyone enjoyed everything. The restaurant is part of a fancy cooking/specialty store. I've always heard my mom talk about it, so it was very nice to see it in person. Once we were done, we headed to our hotel and were able to check in. My parents stayed for a few minutes, but they wanted to get back on the road so they could get ready for work tomorrow.

No sad goodbyes, cuz I'm gonna be seeing them next Thursday, Dec 14th!!! Not only will I be there next week, but I will be there for 16 days. Mike joins me there on the 22nd. I don't know about him, but I'm really excited to be chilling out with the fam for Christmas. I need a serious break. I'm feeling muy burnt out these days. 

Oh, yah, the purpose of our trip. We're here in Raleigh to train on SAP and visit a couple customers. I'm really pumped because this is not easy stuff and we certainly do not get this type of opportunity everyday.

I'll probably update again later.  I've got to rant about christmas light selection in the stores.