• Off to have Turkey Day with the fam-in-laws in San Antonio. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! #
• my ribs or my left lung hurts. Can't tell which. But I do know breathing is kinda hurting now. And no, I did not overeat :P #

• good gawd people! i am definitely not dealing with mensa members on a daily basis. #
• If I had to cook for myself all the time, I would seriously never eat. Yech! #

Yesterday, I had my third P&M massage. Last week I had my second one. That one was brutal. I thought the first one was rough, it paled in comparison to the second one.

She worked on my hip flexor muscles and my IT band. The hip flexors were the real killers. Because I sit on my butt all day at work and at home, this makes my hip flexors pull at my lower back when I am in a more straight position. My right side was my main problem, and this was no different. My right hip was insanely sore. She had to stop about half way through and ice it while she worked on the other side. The left side was pretty brutal too. If I was going to scream during one of these, it would have been during this part. She has to keep reminding me to breathe, cuz I would just quit suddenly.

Later that night, I managed to put myself through some more pain. I took an ice bath. Holy moly. This was just torturous. There I am sitting in the bath while the cold as hell water fills in it up. I'm in a hoodie with the hoodie on and tied, biker shorts on, and my teeth are chattering. And this is all BEFORE the ice gets put in! Mike had the pleasure of emptying two bags of ice into the bath with me. And I do mean pleasure, cuz that boy was laughing quite a lot. Once the ice was in, I stayed in there for a little over 10 minutes. I quickly dressed into every warm piece of clothing I owned and went under the covers. Slept quite nice that night.

And the most shocking thing of all... I went back yesterday for my third P&M session which was focused on my right hip a little more, my right hamstring, and my left achilles. When she worked on my left achilles, she actually worked on my calf alot. There was some crazy pain in there, no doubt.

So, for now, I'm good to go. Physically at least. I haven't had a headache since my first session and I'm feeling quite loose. It's definitely something I will continue to do in the future when I feel myself tightening up. Better that than waiting til I'm in such crazy pain.

Woot!

• *sigh* I'm seriously bummed. ABC cancelled Pushing Daisies, my favorite show in a long time. It always put the biggest grin on my face. #

Last night I went to an early preview screening of Twilight at the Bob Bullock IMAX Theatre. It was an Austin Film Society event, and Richard Linklater was the MC for the evening, as he is one of the founders of AFS. The director, Catherine Hardwicke, was also in attendance. She did work as Linklater's Production Designer on a couple or so films, so they have some history. There was a Q&A afterwards, and it didn't suck.

Mike, my workout bud Sarah, and my boss' daughter Courtney were with me. I'd heard from my boss how much his daughter was into the books, so when I had an extra ticket, I offered it up. She was super excited and really sweet. I hope she enjoyed herself.

First off, let me tell you my pre-watching thoughts. I was not in love with the casting. I could definitely see Kristen Stewart as Bella. But I was really not digging on Robert Pattinson as Edward. I mean, c'mon, Edward is supposed to be this beautiful being. While Robert Pattinson isn't unattractive, he's just not even close to what I pictured for Edward. The rest of the cast I wasn't too concerned with, but I wasn't awesomely thrilled. I did hope the casting of Alice would be good, cuz she's a fun character. To sum it up, I loved the books, so I was really wary of the movie.

Ok, now to the after-watching thoughts. Casting wasn't as awful as I was thinking. With the exception of Peter Facinelli as Carlisle Cullen. What the hell? Bizarre. Overall, I liked it. But I didn't find it terribly moving. Kristen Stewart was good, but didn't have a tremendous amount of range. Shockingly, I really did enjoy Robert Pattinson's performance. I still don't feel like he looks like Edward. I don't even think I would call him beautiful, as Edward is so often described in the book. Handsome, yes. Perhaps even untraditionally so, thus the allure. He's got enough "ugly" in him to make it interesting. What do I mean by that, you may wonder? I think that the people we are drawn to in flocks have some slightly off about that beauty. And he definitely has something slightly off. But I can dig it. Anyhoo, back to the performance. I definitely felt the attraction from Edward towards Bella, but not so much in the reverse. The main part of the story, the falling in love part, was the part that I missed most. It seemed like one minute Edward was all hateful towards Bella, the next they are in complete and utter love for all eternity. Nah, not so much. Granted, this does happen in the book, but in such a way that it builds properly. I missed the buildup, cuz it just wasn't there. My husband, Mike, also pointed out a hole to me that I probably looked over, because I'd read the book. There's a bad vampire that gets a whiff of Bella and suddenly has to have her. So they take off running to get her away from him. However, we never really find out why does this vampire have to have HER. Why would he be willing to run all over the US tracking her down? That is covered in the book a bit more, so I guess my mind filled in the blanks.

I also didn't love the camera work and choice of shots. I know this is supposed to be an intimate story, and a good way to get that across is close-up shots. But, yanno that adage.. too much of a good thing... definitely applies here. There was also a lot of handheld stuff, and it seemed slightly messy. The glaringly awful thing in the movie was the special effects. Wow, bad. There's a scene where Edward exposes his skin to the sun and it "sparkles". Man, talk about velveeta. Yeeeow. Edward's skin overall (non-sunned) wasn't too bad, but Carlisle's?!?!?! Wow, let's dip a dude in a vat of rice powder or something. Goodness. But I do need to remember that the budget for this movie was kinda low ($40mil) for such a largely hyped movie. So, they did good.

Don't get me wrong, I did like this movie. I'm even contemplating seeing it again. And I very rarely see movies more than once in the theater. It just felt loose, watered down even. I do recommend anyone into vampire love stories with a bit of blood & action go see it. Then, if you haven't read the book, go do that. You'll like it even better.

7 out of 10

• just got out of an early screening of Twilight with director Catherine Hardwicke in attendance. not bad... not bad. I'll review tomorrow. #

• Went to get a deep tissue-type massage today (cuz of headaches). While the during was very painful at times, the after has been amazing. #
• Yesterday, felt great from massage. Today, feel like I've been hit by a semi. I knew this would happen, yet it doesn't make it hurt less. #

For about the past three weeks, I've been really incredibly uncomfortable.

It seemed to start while I was working out. I was doing my usual lifting of weights with my trainer and I had some seriously major pain shoot up the right side of my neck and explode inside of my head. I shake it off, try the exercise again, and bam. Same thing. My trainer feels my neck and presses around in the muscles and he actually can't believe how tight my neck & shoulder muscles are on my right side. He says the left side feels absolutely relaxed, but the right is like a series of rocks. He helps me stretch it for a bit, and we try again, and happens again.

So, this happens on certain exercises for a couple weeks, but it gets to a completely unbearable point. My neck is also so tight it gives me headaches everyday for 3 weeks. I just couldn't take it anymore. So, I do the unthinkable. I get a full body massage at my gym. Yes, I did get a massage in Hawaii for the first time, but I still don't consider myself a person who gets massages. You have to understand how uncomfortable even the thought of massage makes me, so I had to be in some serious discomfort to end up getting one. Well, i did. It was great during, and even for a couple hours after. But then boom, I feel it all coming back.

The only thought that crossed my mind at that time was "Motherfucker!". I hate to be so crude. Ha! You know me, I lie. I love to be so crude. At this point, I know Mike has had a type of massage that helped some weird problems he's had in the past... numb/tingly elbow and other weirdness. It's a seriously painful type of massage but in the end it seems really helpful. Since a really painful massage is hard to .. you know.. get excited about and all that... I finally came to a point where I was willing to give it a try. I make an appointment at Therapy Central of Round Rock.

My appointment was yesterday, and I absolutely loved the therapist I had. I knew I adored her from the first 90 seconds. Which I guess is kind of important in someone that is going to make you feel intense pain. Mike's friend actually works there, but he just had some knee surgery, so he couldn't see me. But while I was there for my appointment he was also there to get seen for his knee. Before my session started he came in and said hello and whatnot. He had joked to not worry about all his screaming, but that turned out to also be true. He did scream quite a bit. My therapist, Susan, and I were laughing about it. Well, I joined her in laughing when I had the breath capability to do it.

The method they use is P&M (Pin & Move) Myofascial Release. They pin the muscle, and that alone can hurt, and other times hurt so bad you don't want to breathe. However, when they start moving that muscle as they have it pinned, you really want to slap yo mama. Yowza, Holy Crap, and Kill Me Now... all in one go. She worked on my chest, my shoulders, shoulder blades, and neck/head. Some of the places on my head hurt in that "OMG, this hurts but I love you so much for finding that spot". She also suffers from migraines so she knows all those sweet spots.

Right after I felt fabulous. All loosey goosey, and just high on life. A few hours later some of the soreness started to set in. It made me not look forward to today... cuz OMG. I am so sore today. And what do I have to do first thing this morning... go work out with the trainer... on my Chest/Back/Shoulders. All the spots got worked on. Man, i cannot believe I made it through. I hurt just having my t-shirt on. Holy moly. I was expecting to be literally black & blue everywhere. But I wasn't. If I had been I would have taken pictures for you. Cuz it would have been gross, and you'd need to see that.

Anyway... even though, I've gone on and on and on about the pain (I mean, look at their logo for Pete's sake, they advertise the pain!!)  I would highly recommend this to anyone. Even if you aren't suffering from something major. I think it would be good for anyone to get your shit all worked out.

Up next... Monday... where we work on my lower half. I'll keep ya posted on how much fun that ends up being :D