I haven’t been around online much this past week, and alas, it’s all because of my spectacular lack of grace. I pulled something in my lower back and right leg Thursday before last while I was cleaning out the storage shed. I tripped while carrying a box (good thing it was a box of holiday trinkets and not the rusted band saw blades I’d seen earlier) and twisted around trying to keep from falling and crushing them. I succeeded, but managed to pull something in the process.

For the first few days there was no comfortable position for me to sleep. I found a spot in my computer chair that was halfway decent and got maybe two hours sleep that night and three the next. Needless to say, I missed work on Saturday that week.

My back is feeling much better now, but my leg is still acting up. Though not swelling up like crazy like it was. It especially gives me trouble when I’m sitting for too long, hence why I’m not online much this past week, or standing for too long. Or when I’m getting in/out of my car which has never seemed that low to me until now. Long drives bug it too. Lots of laying down for me with my leg elevated. I’ve been popping ibuprofen like crazy too and smothering my leg in Icy Hot, so needless to say I haven’t donated plasma recently either.

So for those who have emailed me and tried to contact me online, and wondered where I am, I do apologize for not being around much here lately. I am feeling much better though, so I will attempt to start getting back to folks.

There appears to be some very positive upsides to donating plasma regularly, and I’m not just talking about the monetary rewards either.

Attention Readers of the male persuasion: if you get squicked out hearing about, reading about, or being forced to talk about women and their health issues, you may want to move on to the next post in my blog.

That said, donating plasma has had three very noticeable side-affects on me. Because, in order to successfully donate plasma without your blood clotting horribly, or passing out, you need to be well-hydrated and you should have eaten recently, I have amended my diet quite a bit. I drink a lot of water every day now, especially the day before, the day of, and the day after I donate plasma. I’m also drinking more gatorade too because it replenishes the vitamins I’ve lost better then plain water does. On top of that, I eat more regularly too. When I donate, if I haven’t eaten enough beforehand, afterwards I’m left feeling faint and woozy. So now, on days I donated I always make sure to eat breakfast before I get to work, I’ll take something with me or pick something up on the way and take little breaks at work and munch on some food. Then, after I get out, if I took a dish to eat I finish what’s left or I grab something else to eat that I might have in the car (fruit, chips, jerky) or even a sub from Subway. Then I go and donate. When I get home I eat an early (for me) dinner. In short, I am eating the minimum amount of meals you should eat, at least, on those days. The side affect? My body has gotten used to not skipping meals and now when I try to skip a meal, it rebels. I’ve taken to eating breakfast regularly once again.

All of this has led to three changes in my health that I can definitely get behind. First of all, I’ve got a lot more energy. I’m not feeling worn out and tired all them anymore, and it really shows in my complexion as well. Secondly, I’ve lost weight. Eating regularly has resulted in my metabolism speeding up and I’ve lost a good ten pounds as a result, without trying. The weight loss will probably stay where it is now, but still, it’s nice knowing my body is working at full-tilt again. And lastly, and probably most importantly to me, my menstrual cycle has become more regular. Up until recently it’s been a real pain to keep track of. It came infrequently, lasted for way longer than usual, went away briefly, returned way too soon, went away just as quick, then came back again. The flow also wasn’t consistent either. Sometimes heavy, sometimes barely there. And when it was heavy, boy was was it heavy. We’re talking wearing those overnight pads during the day so that I knew I wouldn’t overflow, because even a super-tampon and regular pad combined weren’t enough to ensure I’d make it more then an hour without an accident. And at work I cannot keep running to the bathroom every forty-five minuets. I seriously felt like I was wearing an adult diaper, hell they sounded like a good idea for a while there. It got that crazy. But now, with the diet changes, plus the normal exercise I get, my period is starting to work itself out. Already it’s getting set on a schedule, might be a few days off here and there now, but I can tell when I’m going to start again. The cycle also is lasting the normal time it should and is no longer exceedingly long or freakishly short.

Really, it’s kinda freaky how just eating regularly (no more skipped meals or tiny little snacks here and there) drinking things other than soda and coffee, can make such drastic changes in your body.

Yes, yes, I take horrible care of myself if I’m amazed by these changes.

I am, once again, donating plasma regularly at the Biologicals facility in town. Which is a damn good thing because I could use all the money I can get. Got some big payments coming up all within days of each other, not to mention some unexpected expenses to boot. Don’t you hate it when that happens?

Technically, I’m not a regular donor yet. But I plan to be! I FINALLY got in to donate on Wednesday, and it was a success too. No passing out or feeling woozy because I wasn’t hydrated enough, and the guy who hooked me up to the machine has been there for years – he even remembered me – and is one of the few that can find my veins easily, so there were no crazy bruises all up and down my arms this time either.

I’m glad I finally got to donate Wednesday; I was just about to give up and write it off as a lost cause. Because it had been such a long time since my last donation I had to get a physical done before I was cleared to donate. Thing is, the physicians there only want to do physicals up until a certain time and even though I was told multiple times that I could come in at a certain time and they’d still do physicals, I kept getting turned away because:

• They had a new donor physical to do and those take so long that the physicians didn’t want another one lined up afterwards and wanted that as their last one for the day.
• Or, the physicians have decided that even though it’s before 3pm, they’re done doing physicals. So what if I’d already been waiting half an hour?
• Despite being open until 3pm on Saturdays, they don’t do physicals after 12pm so I was SOL there too.

Yeah, I’d been trying for weeks, got turned away twice after being told explicitly that they were still doing physicals before they decide they’re just not taking anymore. I backed off, waited a week, then tried again on Tuesday, waited half an hour before being told they’re not doing physicals anymore even though I got there in time. One girl coaxed me to try again on Wednesday and gave me a number, direct to the physician’s lines, so that I could call ahead. I was told if I got get there in 15 minutes I’d definitely get my physical that day. I went from one side of town to the other, during the time that schools are getting out, and made it there in just under ten minutes. And I got the physical done too. Took forever, but I was good to go and donated that day.

Sure I’ve got a job, decent hours, and decent pay, but right now I could use all the extra I can get because things will be very tight and the little extra I get from DCI Biologicals will help a lot.

They’ve made some rather drastic changes since last I was there. Now we’re allowed to have our cellphones (or small laptops, iPads) out on the donor floor, something that was never allowed before. The payouts are more as well too. And, probably the most shocking turn of events – they no longer pay cash. Despite what their ad in the classifieds suggests, they’ve switched to paying donors on Visa debit cards. You can use them anywhere, just like a credit card/check card, and you can monitor your balance online easily too. One swipe with their handy-dandy cordless barcode scanner on the paperwork, activate the card, and voila – good to go. After that they just apply the payments after each successful donation on their system and you don’t have to give them your card again. You’ve got the funds before you’re off the donor floor and they don’t have to worry about a ton of cash on the premises tempting lowlifes.

Might be a little more troublesome when I need to deposit the cash into my bank account, but otherwise, a sensible solution that I do like.

I was absolutely thrilled to hear I had been hired earlier, especially since I had come to believe that it was all but certain I wasn’t getting the job. But now I find myself grumbling a bit. Why? Well you see, this job requires that I wear business casual attire to work. I should have plenty in my closet but I now find myself with a smaller selection to choose from. Literally and figuratively.

I knew I’d put on some weight, just didn’t realize how much. Some of my slacks are tight around the waist or don’t really fit comfortably period. A few blouses are also a bit too tight. So I now have a much smaller wardrobe size to work with. I could go out and buy new clothes when I get my first paycheck….but since I really would rather loose the pounds rather then spend money, that option really isn’t appealing. So now I’m sitting here trying to figure out how to lose belly fat quickly and efficiently. At least a few sizes in any case.

I swear, if it’s not one thing it’s another with me.

I was given the opportunity to sample and review some products from CareCleaningAndProtection.com. The product I got to review was their SaniGuard Surface Sanitizing Spray (sanitizer). The following review is composed of my own honest opinion and experience.

As I mentioned in the video review, it’s kind of hard to test the over all effectiveness of a sanitizer and it’s ability to kill germs without, you know, having the germs and what not there to actually kill. I would have really liked to try this out for a lengthy period during the flu season. Now that would be an awesome test right there.

The sanitizer comes in these 0.75oz cans, is simple to use, and has a pleasant and clean lemony scent to it. The sanitizer is designed to kill 99.99% of the germs that can cause MRSA, HIV, Staph, E-coli, and influenza – definitely something you’d want to use in a work place (or anywhere really) that sees a heavy amount of traffic. I was pleased to note that the spray did not have an overpowering and harsh chemical scent to it like I had feared. Also, as someone with rather delicate skin, I was also pleased to note that I did not have any adverse reaction to the sanitizer when my skin made contact with the surfaces that had been treated with it over time.

For me, the sanitizer spray would not be that ideal given the price and the quantity that the sanitizer is available for on the website.

Money is still pretty tight here, even though I’ve had some new sources of income coming in, most of it just goes to pay long overdue bills rather then actually building a cushion. Grocery shopping is actually kind of humorous for the cashiers at Wal-Mart. They’ll see me come up with a large bag of cat food, some cans of wet food, and cat litter. Then they’ll see the rest of my items consists of human food that is non-perishable, can be stretched to infinity, and is really cheap.

I actually had a cashier laugh at me and say maybe it’s time I got “rid of the cat” since I “clearly can’t afford it”. Just about popped the cashier one on that. I mean seriously, just because times are rough I’m supposed to abandon my girls? Well, you can tell what kind of pet owner that cashier was. I have no intention of ditching Isis and Denali just because I’m experiencing employment woes. That’s not their fault damn it!

Needless to say my “diet” is pretty much shot to hell and back. I’ve cut out a lot of fruits and veggies from my diet because they’re just too damn expensive and I can’t see spending the money on them. Sad isn’t it? It’s just that produce doesn’t last that long (and it seems to go bad sooner and sooner now a days too) and I tend to do all my grocery shopping for the month in one fell swoop to save money and time. So, for the amount I spend on produce, for what little I do get, can usually be better spent elsewhere. Somehow I always manage to have apples, potatoes, and onions in the house though. Then again, considering how well those last compared to other produce, it’s not that surprising.

So, despite working out pretty regularly still, my eating habits aren’t what I’d like them to be. As a result? The diet isn’t going nearly as well as it was in the beginning. Ironically, some folks have suggested I invest in dietary stuff like that noxycut. Yeah, because since money is tight buying expensive diet stuff that may or may not work is a completely viable option. Pfft!

Honestly though, I feel kinda proud that I’m managing to stay afloat right now. Granted, I’ve got the support of people who love me to boost me when I’m down, but I’m managing. That’s all one can really ask for.

On another note, my cold is finally clearing up. Throat is still sore and my sinuses are still clogged, but at least I’m not trying to hack up a lung every five minutes!

Feeling a mite bit better today thankfully. Yesterday was absolutely horrid though. I’ve had a sore throat and terrible cough for a couple of days now. Of course yesterday it was chilly and decided to rain all day long which didn’t help at all. At one point I was in the middle of a phone conversation when my voice went out completely. Couldn’t speak a word, just a horrid hacking sound and that was it. Had to hang up and then send a text to explain to a confused friend why I just hung up in the middle of a call.

Of course I had explained that my throat was hurting and I kept coughing if I said more then a few words at a time so it shouldn’t have shocked her as much as it had.

My voice is back now though thankfully. We’re back to coughing after saying a few words but at least I can talk and it’s in a voice above a whisper, if only slightly. I sound alarmingly like Gekkou Hayate right now though. Remember him? Hayate was the proctor for the preliminary rounds in the Chuunin exam in the series Naruto. He ended up being killed by Baki, the jounin sensei for the sand siblings… Anyway, the guy was all pale and sickly looking and coughed after every few words and that is exactly what I’m like right now. Ugly pale complexion that makes blackheads stand out like crazy, nasty persistent cough, and droopy eyes. Too bad I don’t have his mad ninja skills to go with it.

Ugh. It’s also windy and cold outside so that’s probably not helping me any. So glad my interview for today was canceled. I can’t imagine anyone being terribly impressed with my ability to hack up a lung. To think, this all started when my allergies acted up. Now I wish it was just that.

Breakfast, the most important meal of the day. It’s also the meal I tend to skip the most. For as long as I can remember, I’ve had trouble remembering to eat breakfast. It’s not so much that I’m so busy, although in the past that was a major factor, but more like I can’t stomach anything early in the morning. I usually don’t feel like eating anything until 10 o’clock (if I got up early) or around noon if I got up at say 9 or 10 in the morning.

I have been trying to eat something, and when I noticed that the milk had gone bad I mourned the loss of cereal this morning. Sure I could have eaten some dried, but the only thing I had left was Life, and I’ve never been able to eat more than a handful dry. But hey, it gave me a damn good excuse to open up the package of snack mix I picked up to try and eat some before heading out!

Yeah, I know it’s been around for a while now, but I’d never tried it before, strangely enough. I gave it a try this morning and I gotta say, I love it. I could sit here and eat the whole bag in a setting! Thankfully, I got some control and only had a couple of handfuls.

Cheerios Snack Mix has pretzels, bagel chips, Chex, Cheerios, and those little bread sticks. In short, it’s pretty much your basic snack mix. It didn’t feel nearly as greasy as other snack mixes, which is good since it is supposed to be baked and not fried. However, for those counting the calories, it does deliver up 120 calories per serving (2/3 cup) which is 60 calories more then a regular bowl of Cheerios.

Thankfully, I ate this before my morning ride so I can safely say I burned it off.

Strangely enough, I’ve found that eating healthier (or at least not skipping meals like crazy) and exercise has done wonders for my oil skin and the acne that was starting to return. The best acne products, in my book, are the ones you don’t have to pay for, so that’s awesome. My morning walks and bike rides though do absolutely nothing for the dry skin, just makes it worse. Why can’t my face decide between the two? Why must certain sections be oily and other parts dry? Why?!

You may recall me talking about donating plasma in my last post, and how my blood started clotting, which made the ordeal very draining/tiring? To summarize, Because my blood started clotting and was collecting in the machine, but was not being returned to me, I was actually loosing blood and not getting it back. Imagine sitting down somewhere and having your blood drained for about an hour, that’s essentially what happened to me. And because my right arm was starting to bruise from the ordeal, they decided it would be best to switch to my other arm and just set the machine to return the blood to me without separating the plasma as I had begun to suffer the first stages of blood loss.

Well, a few hours after all was said and done my arms were sore and tender as fuck, excuse the language. To top it off, they were both swollen around the area where the needle was injected and bruising to boot!

That’s how they looked yesterday, now they’re looking even scarier. Lots of burst blood vessels near the surface of my skin, and look, funny bruises that aren’t even that close to the needle mark to boot!

Yeah, I wish I could say those yucky spots are actually dirt and I need to go wash up. Sadly, that’s the result of the not so successful plasma donation.

I’ve never bruised up that bad before, not after a plasma donation, or anything for that matter really. The swelling in my right arm (picture above and on the right) has gone down, but the swelling in the left arm has pretty much remained the same.

Perhaps I should consider not donating plasma anymore? I seem to always come out the worse for wear.

Today was a long, tedious, and exhausting day.

First I woke up early so I could get the girls (Isis and Denali) up to town today for their physical and interviews (a local agency is actually “hiring” cats for modeling in media). There actually weren’t that many people that responded to the ad apparently, and despite the fact that Isis and Denali were among the better behaved kitties there, they probably won’t be getting any “jobs” sadly. Isis and Denali are all up to date on their shots, are in wonderful health (some couldn’t believe Isis is actually 14 years!), and unlike most of the cats that were brought in, Isis and Denali obey commands like “up”, “down”, “stay”, and “follow”. In the instances where they hesitate, all I have to say is “kitchen”, which Denali and Isis translate as “FOOD!” and their hesitance is gone. Yet despite this, after every stage of their “audition” people felt the need to comment on how it was “such a shame they’re not pure breeds”.

I seriously hate it when people judge pets by their pedigree. Just because they’re of a mixed breed does not mean the animal in question is any less “desirable”.

In any case, I was given the distinct impression that the lack of a pedigree will keep Isis and Denali from getting a call back. Disheartening really as Isis seemed to be eating the attention up. Seriously, I just know that kitty knew exactly what was going on and loved every minute of it. I expected her to act as she does at the vet’s office, instead she was a little prima donna.

After that ordeal, I took the girls back home then went up to ‘Cruces to run a few errands before donating plasma. Ugh, I swear every time I go something goes wrong. Today my blood was clotting up badly so instead of donating plasma I donated more blood than anything else. You see, the machine draws your blood out, separates the plasma from the blood and sends the plasma to the container while sending your blood back into you. Well, since my blood was clotting so badly, my blood was drawn out, got clogged up in the machine and very little of the plasma actually went into the collection container. To top it off, my blood wasn’t returning to me either. Eventually, because of the “shock” of having so much blood drawn, the continuance of my blood clotting, and the way my veins were acting, it was decided that they would switch arms to re-stick me and then return my blood to me that way as the arm I was using was bruising already. Even then, immediately after sticking me on my other arm, the area around my vein swelled and started bruising.

And did I mention my arms are sore where they stuck me still?

After that I decided to grab something in town, which kinda put a dent in my healthy eating and will probably be reflected in the weigh in on PixieWire to boot. Ah! For those that don’t know, PixieWire.net is a blog I created in January to keep track of progress towards becoming a healthier and happier me. I hesitate to call it simply a diet blog, simply because it also focuses on my emotional/mental health as well. I’m afraid you won’t be finding anything like a Jenny Craig review on there, as I am not enrolled in any such programs or taking any special drugs, just good old fashioned exercise and eating right. Still, I’m sure it’ll be good for a laugh! You can always smirk and giggle at my attempts to drop from an unhealthy 246 lbs to a slimmer 160 lbs.

Well, in any case, after all of that, then coming home to clean and logging on to my blogs to find them out of date (new version of wordpress!) and several plugins needing to be updated, not to mention my backlogged emails, and re-installing some more stuff to the laptop after the re-install of Windows, I’m just exhausted and ready to hit the sack.

Major run-on sentence there, yes I know.

Honestly, I feel a bit like a moron right now. I went shopping at Wal-Mart early today in order to pick up a few groceries and some essentials and I completely spazzed on health care products. Well, not entirely, but for the most part I did.

I was right there in the aisle looking at face creams, because my face skin has been so gross lately, and was just disgusted with the selections. You see, here lately, while my forehead gets a little oily at night the skin on my cheeks, nose, and surrounding my nose, gets very dry. The end result is every morning my skin is flaking and just looks gross. I have baby lotion at home as well as various scented body lotions and cremes, but none of them seem to be working on my dry facial skin. So while I was shopping at Wal-Mart I browsed the beauty section looking for facial cremes that might do the trick. Nada, zip, zero, zilch, nanimo, nothing. There were a ton of different kinds of anti wrinkle eye cream, facial hair remover cremes, and even some sort of creme that is supposed to help with acne and blackheads. But just regular old facial cremes? I was out of luck there.

I was pretty frustrated that there absolutely nothing to help me and just hauled ass out of that section and finished up grocery shopping. Since I went to the Wal-Mart on Valley street, any other stores I could think of that would offer a decent selection of beauty supplies were on the other side of town, and I so was not wasting gas to buy facial creme.

The downside (and purpose of this post)? I completely forgot to pick up more body wash and shampoo.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I still have some here at the house, it’s just all scented or part of a perfume set. I meant to pick up some regular body wash, Dove soap, and daily clarifying shampoo from Suave. I like switching off with non-scented stuff and I prefer to use it when I plan on using certain body sprays, lotions, or perfumes, that are scented so that this way there aren’t a ton of different cloying scents all over me. But since I got all huffy over the lack of regular facial creme I didn’t pick the stuff up.

So now that I’m out of the shower I smell really….fruity. I guess that’s the right word anyway. Making do with what I had, I used Vanilla & Cinnamon scented shampoo, Peaches & Creme conditioner (because sadly that was the only conditioner I had left and my hair was in terrible need of conditioning), Black Raspberry & Vanilla scented body wash, and now I’ve topped it off with Vanilla scented lotion.

I’m sure I’d be setting off people’s allergies. But hey, I’m clean and smelling pretty regardless! And at least I kind of had a common theme – vanilla!

I just got out of the shower a few minutes ago and was sitting down on the couch applying lotion to my arms and legs all the while listening to the commercials prattle on about low cost car insurance (think it was Allstate, could have been Geico though) when I finally took a good look at my left arm. What I saw stunned me a bit – I’m all bruised!

I donated plasma the other and they had to use my left arm as nobody seemed able to find my vein in my right arm, no matter how hard they tried. Seriously, after thirty minutes and five different people had tried, they had to give it up and do the left arm instead. Even then it took about another ten minutes. My veins can be difficult at times, but shesh, they’ve never given anyone that much trouble before!

Well, as I mentioned, on the left arm it still took about ten minutes to find my vein. The girl who was sticking me had to get a supervisor to find it for her and he found it quickly. However, he left her to do it and she wasn’t all that certain she had actually felt my vein. She ended up inserting the needle, moving it around some, then moving it around some more. Pulled it out, re-stuck me, and wiggled it around again before declaring she had found it.

The end result is that twenty-four hours later the area that my plasma was drawn from me is all bruised and scary looking. *sigh*

I planned to go in again to donate plasma tomorrow (Thursday) and I still do. However, it looks like they’re gonna have to draw from my right arm this time regardless. I don’t exactly relish the thought of them sticking me in my left arm again so soon when it’s looking like that.

I am just so excited about donating plasma today. The reason for my excitement is actually silly and embarrassing to be honest. You see, when I went for the first time in years some odd months back I blacked out after I was finished donating. It was so humiliating. I had never had that problem before and to have it happen to me out on the donor floor in front of all those people – utterly mortifying.

I’ve gotten woozy at the end the other two times I’ve gone since then and seen stars, but thankfully not passed out again. Each time someone drove me so I didn’t have to worry about driving back on my own in case I was feeling faint. However, as you can guess, finding a ride isn’t always feasible. Especially since I have a perfectly working vehicle of my own so people tend to give me a look that just screams “What do you need me to drive you for?”.

And since I still can’t get a job that isn’t flipping burgers I need all the money I can get, and donating plasma does pay (some) cash and can help cover expenses. So I swallowed my fear and went up today on my own, and even though I was a little woozy at the end, I didn’t black out or anything. Such a relief!

While waiting in the waiting room I was reading a copy of the University’s newspaper and found a few job postings I’ll be looking into. Wish me luck there!

I just about fell asleep waiting to go back though. There were a couple of law students there talking about LSAT prep, some of the courses and professors at NMSU, and (of course) comparing the programs between UNM and NMSU. UNM has the better law program, just about everyone knows that, and yet people still love arguing about it. Completely baffles me. It’s like arguing over whether the sky is blue or pink with purple polka dots. What’s the point?

Fall is definitely upon us now. It took ages for the leaves to start changing around here, and even though they have, everything still looks so green and lively. But for the past couple of days it has gotten very cold and today, on top of being cold and cloudy, it’s also windy as hell. I really just want to crawl under the covers and go back to sleep. It was warm while I was in bed. It wasn’t cold until I got up and started moving about.

Alas, I have much to do and it won’t get done unless I get up and about and actually do it. I just wish this house wasn’t so cold. I got out of the shower a few minutes ago and it felt like I was going to freeze to death before I got dressed. I then spent twenty minutes applying as much lotion as possible to my skin because it bore an uncanny resemblance to a reptile’s skin – it was just that dry and flaky. But in all honesty my skin could be a lot a worse. I’d rather have dry skin that takes a little extra lotion than have oily skin that causes humongous breakouts and force me to shell out all kinds of extra money for acne treatments. Must look on the bright side of things!

I’m going just kick back, check some email, drink some nice hot tea for a few more minutes (mainly to give the lotion a chance to set in and do some good) and then I’ve got to get to cleaning. The place is a mess and I sadly let it get this way. The kitchen is the worst, I’ve got Mt. Dishmore in there; the dishes are just stacked on the counter and in need of washing. Bad me, yes I know. Strangely enough the bathroom and living room are the cleanest. Go figure.

I was lucky to receive a free package of DenTek Fun Flossers to sample for review, which I was quite happy to do. Now, I must confess, I was initially leery of trying them, mainly because I’ve always found the disposable floss wands to look kind of “funny” and awkward. However, there is no denying that string floss just can’t get it all sometimes. With that in mind I tried to keep an open mind when giving this product a try.

Fun Flossers, as evidenced by the name, is a brand of kids floss that aims to help children develop healthy oral care habits early. Them come in 48-count packages that consist of four fluorescent colors (pink, orange, blue, and green) and the floss has a fluoride coating. In order to reach a decision as to the effectiveness of the floss, I compared it with my usual brand of string floss, which you can see in this video review:

As I said, I really believed that string floss performed better than wands, but I think I may have to rethink my stance on that. Using the Fun Flossers I was able to better reach all of the teeth in my mouth, even those molars in the far back that I can never seem to get to with string floss. No shoving a fist into my mouth just to reach every tooth. Not to mention, I did have to hold a dirty floss string that was coated with the gunk from between my teeth. I might not be kid anymore, but I certainly appreciated the fun colors provided and I sincerely think children will as well.

I would like to mention however that the package clearly says “Wild Fruit” on it up at the top which implies that these floss wands are flavored. I’ve used all of the colors included and I have yet to taste anything on the floss. There isn’t even a fruity smell to hint at these being flavored. If I had purchased these for the flavors I would be disappointed.

While out and about today I stopped by Las Cruces Biologicals and donated plasma. I was kind of afraid to go back since the last time I was there I blacked out after the process was finished. Apparently I was already dehydrated before coming in and since the process can leave you suffering a mild case of dehydration…well it’s no wonder I blacked out.

I used to donate regularly back when I first started college (2002 to 2003 roughly) but then I stopped. However, with times as they are, I could use any cash I can get and really, and an extra $20 in my pocket every couple of days is awesome. Hey, one trip covers gas for at least a week and everything after that helps towards bills. And really, since plasma is used for all sorts of things, like making anti-bodies, vaccines, and research, it’s really a win-win situation.

Today I made sure to eat a decent meal before leaving which consisted of left over cheesy chicken, rice, and broccoli with some freshly toasted and peeled chili on top. Lots of vitamins there! I also made sure to drink a lot of water and tea before going in as well. Even then, when the process was finished, and I was lying there waiting for them to come and unhook me from the machine, my vision began to swim. I ended up biting down on my tongue to help me keep focus. I didn’t pass out though! I think it helped that this time I was still laying down on the lounge-ish chairs they provide instead of standing in line waiting to get my payout like last time.

Ironically, as I lay there I finally understood what it meant to “see stars”. I’ve heard the expression, and of course, in the cartoons characters literally see stars (duckies, the person who ran them over – whatever) circling their head. I’ve never actually experienced it before today though. It took me a moment to realize just what it was though. I was laying there hoping I wouldn’t pass out and embarrass myself again when I noticed these glittering-like sparkles dancing in front of my eyes. At first I thought I’d gone insane then reality kicked in and I realized what it was I was seeing. In retrospect I guess I should be a bit freaked, but really, I just thought it was soo cool.

When I was donating regularly, years ago, I don’t recall ever having this problem. Once or twice I might have been a bit woozy, but definitely not close to passing out. What changed? That’s the question I kept asking myself for the rest of the day before I hit on the answer – I was never close to dehydrating back then. I love soda and I drink it semi-regularly, but I don’t drink nearly as much soda as I used to drink back then. I don’t start the day off with a soda for one thing and I don’t chug at least four or five over the course of a day either. Back then, when I went to donate plasma, I knew that if I had too much sugar in my blood stream that I wouldn’t be able to donate.

You see, before you even go back they prick your finger and take a blood sample to test to make sure there isn’t anything in your system that would render the plasma useless. I lost track of how many times I couldn’t donate because I just had too much sugar in my blood stream, and as a result, I had to drink gallons upon gallons of water leading up to the day I donated in order to “flush” it out of my system. Incidentally, this is also how I found out that I have high levels of iron in my blood. One time, when I went to donate, I wasn’t allowed to donate because the iron levels were too high in my blood. Something that apparently isn’t a very common occurrence but not out of the norm. I had a steak meal for lunch the day previous, but hadn’t had any other iron-rich food since. According to my records my iron levels were always high when I came in, but had never been too high before.

It was eventually explained to me that I have naturally high levels of iron in my blood. Which is very ironic since my mother is anemic. Did I end up stealing all of her iron when I was in the womb or what? And so there was a new self-imposed stipulation for me to remember: on the day(s) leading up to a donation I could not eat any iron-rich food, refrain from more than one soda a day, and drink tons of water. So yeah, it’s a no wonder I didn’t get dehydrated.

Of course, this revelation came after I had finished running around in the hot weather running errands all day and gotten myself a bit dehydrated. I’m just so brilliant! I ended crashing earlier today after guzzling tons of water, Gatorade, and ice tea.

There is one thing I just can’t understand though, I simply cannot fathom how anyone can read while donating plasma. They provide reading material in the waiting room, mostly consisting of years old National Geographic Explorer magazines, travel pamphlets (like the ones that advertise Daytona beach vacations and give you all the rates, attractions, and accommodations), Classifieds, and tabloids. Naturally the more interesting stuff is snatched up and people take it to the back to read while donating plasma. The process always makes me a bit drowsy and the few times I tried to read I nearly nodded off! I end up taking my gameboy and playing a game that I can do one handed (you have to pump the hand on the arm the needle is in periodically) and doesn’t require much focus; usually that means one of my old Pokemon games or Yu-Gi-Oh Dark Duel Stories.

Have you ever donated plasma? Do you read during the process? How on Earth do you stay awake?!

I finally got around to visiting The Outlet Shoppes at El Paso today. You know, that building I drove by every day to work and for the longest time I didn’t know what it was? Couldn’t have picked a worse day actually. You see, the outlet mall is sadly an outdoor mall. So in order to go from shop to shop you have to venture back out into the elements. And while there is still no sign of rain where I live; it was coming down in El Paso. Since I was going and Mom hasn’t been there yet she decided to go with me and offered to drive. I’m glad she did because the parking lot was flooded in parts. I can just imagine trying to drive Pyro through that mess.

The first stop on the list was the Disney Store where I managed to score some The Nightmare Before Christmas swag. Specifically I found this awesome coffee mug and a long-sleeved t-shirt with Jack Skellington on it:

We also did some early Christmas shopping and picked up a few gifts for folks. For example, Mom picked out a mug for one of her co-workers:

It’s a large mug with an interesting shape and an adorable image of Grumpy from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on it. Truth be told, it’s what it has written on the back that sold us on it.

Just fits her to a “T”. Not that we’re going to actually say that to her face of course. Heh. I was disappointed with the Disney Store though. I mean, it’s the Disney Store. I expected to be able to find a few dvds there of Disney movies. It would make sense, right? Well there wasn’t a single dvd to be had there.

After the Disney Store we checked out Le Gourmet Chef, a store neither of us get to visit very often. They have a wide variety of unique sauces, and the best part is, they always have samples out for you to try. A lot of samples in fact. This time we picked up this one barbecue sauce called “Bone Suckin’ Sauce”. It was delicious and I can’t wait to cook with it. Will definitely make a post when I do.

We picked up a few other kitchen essentials as well, but then we came across this and had to get a bottle to try:

I’ve never seen this in stores before; a bottle of Cherry Dr. Pepper desert topper. I figure it might taste good on ice cream, mixed with milk, maybe even alcohol? Who knows!

There was even an outlet shop for Hot Topic! I was hopping to find some anime stuff, be it t-shirts, pins, patches, jackets or bags. And certainly there were some, but nothing particularly special. I did however spy a couple of Michael Jackson tribute t-shirts. There were three designs to choose from, one that had Michael facing forward and holding his hat down. I didn’t care too much for the image, as I wanted one that had more of his features visible. To top it all off they were in XS (extra small). The second one featured a cartoon-version of Michael Jackson in his zombie-outfit from the “Thriller” music video. Once again, all in XS. The third design we saw was awesome and exactly what I was looking for in a t-shirt:

Unfortunately, there was only one shirt that wasn’t XS and it was an XL. Since, between the two of us, Mom is the bigger MJ fan I let her get it. It didn’t feel right grabbing the only size she could wear and taking it for myself when MJ was her idol growing up. I mean come on, she was a fan when he was a part of The Jackson 5, when they were The Jacksons, and when he went solo. I felt she had more right to it.

There was also a Bath & Body Works at the outlet mall as well, which we took advantage of. They had a “buy 3 get 2 free” sale going on and we took advantage of it to stock up so to speak. I was so happy to see they had plenty of Black Raspberry Vanilla (one of my favorite scents) in stock. I got some of their fragrance mist, body lotion, and shower gel. Mom stocked up on Moonlight Path.

The rain thankfully didn’t last too long while we were at the mall. In fact, by the time we got out of the Disney Store it had stopped. Which was probably a good thing for this one guy. I couldn’t figure out if he was some punk trying to show off or if the car was supposed to be on display. I didn’t get close enough to see the make, but it was a sporty yellow car with lambo doors and was pulled up to the walk ways. The reason I wonder if it was on display or not was because there was a large crowd gathered around it and about six security guards. I wanted to be nosy and investigate but thought better of it. Besides, we were leaving at the commotion was in the opposite direction.

Overall it was a fun little expenditure but it was disappointing too. I expected to see some seriously reduced prices but a lot of stores barely marked down their merchandise. Coach, Liz Claiborne, and Nike being the worst of them.

Normally I work the evening shift, as you all well know, which generally runs from 3:30 to 9:30pm depending on whether or not we’re hurting for hours or not. Well, today, or rather Wednesday, I decided to pull a double shift. Since we really need all the hours we can get, they wanted us to work six days this week, however, I was really looking forward to get some things taken care of and did not want to pull a Monday through Saturday work week with only Sunday to give me any rest. I opted instead to come in and work some extra hours so that I could have a five-day week.

Personally, I prefer having Saturdays off, not Fridays, so I’m taking Saturday. In any case, I came in at 8am this morning, worked until a little after 1pm and then took off so that I could deposit some money into my account and grab a bite to eat before my regularly scheduled shift at 3:30pm. Let me just say, it was a very long day. The morning leads were tough and only netted me one sale which made coming back in for the evening shift even more tiring. On our first break I went over to Circle K and bought a Dr. Pepper and a Starbuck’s Doubleshot energy drink. Needless to say, I was completely wired for the rest of the night. I was positively thrumming with energy and my hands were twitchy all night. But hey, I came back and racked in 7 sales so it’s all good!

During the morning shift, while in the break room some of my co-workers were discussing different diet products they’ve been using. Naturally some mentioned the well known pills and liquid diets, but one woman mentioned something that I had never heard of. I forgot the name, sadly, but apparently it’s essentially a protein drink that you take right before you go to bed and while you sleep it burns fat. You’re not supposed to eat anything three hours before you go to bed, you take the protein drink, and the pounds melt away over night. Truly, it sounds too good to be true, especially since we all know that you’re not supposed to eat/drink anything heavy before bed and a protein drink is anything but light, but she swears she’s lost an inch in a week.

What do you think, does it sound like a real miracle worker or is it just too good to be true?

I’m not sure why, but ever since I started working at DialAmerica I’ve been keeping my nails painted. As soon as one nail flakes, I repair it, or remove the old color and completely repaint them. I’ve never been that finicky about how my nails looked before. If they chip, oh well, it happens. Know what I mean? This is probably because this is the first job I’ve had, in years, that is out in “public” and isn’t hard on my nails. I swear, when I was working at NMSU Athletics, it was completely pointless to worry about my nails. If they survived more than two nights it was a flat out miracle.

I’ve had my nails painted just about every color of the rainbow so far since I’ve started there, but by far, my favorite nail polish colors are black, purple, and red. I just look good with the color, and they go well with most of my outfits. I found an online store called Hello Gorgeous! that offers up a decent sized selection of nail polish brands and a variety of colors as well. They have my favorite brand too – OPI.

I’m actually glad I looked on this site because, not only do they have several brands of nail polish that I can only seem to find at select stores in this area, they also have some colors I haven’t seen in stores around here. Take for example, OPI’s Lourve Me Lourve Me Not (F13), which you can see pictured to your left. I swear I’ve never seen this shade in stores. I have seen the brighter and lighter shades of purple, but mostly I find blues, oranges, reds, and of course the customary clear colors and sometimes black. I would definately remember having seen this lovely shade of royal purple before.

Finding colors online that never seem to in-stock in stores makes me seriously consider doing all of my shopping online from now on.

Ah, my weekend is drawing to a close. I have to go to work tomorrow, granted it’s in the evening, but still. My free time is ending. *sniffles*

I don’t think I like this going in at 4pm and getting out at 9:30pm business. We get on 15 minute break at 6:45pm and then you’re stuck in that chair until the end. It wouldn’t be so bad, if I wasn’t stuck, essentially, talking for three hours. My moth gets so dry and I literally go through a bottle of water/tea in that period.

There’s one girl I work with, she’s started dieting, despite not needing to, and she worries me. She pops some sort of diet pill when the shift starts, drinks nothing but water or this herbal stuff, and then complains about the weight she’s gaining from sitting there all day. I honestly can’t see an ounce of extra fat on her either. At break she doesn’t eat anymore, because she’s “gaining weight”, really it’s quite scary. I’m waiting for the day she passes out on the sales floor from lack of proper diet.

I really love those Lipton and Crystal Light tea to go things though. I’d get sick to my stomach if I was drinking that much water every day, but with these suckers, I just tear open a little packet, drop it in the water bottle, shake well, and instant-tea. The Raspberry green tea is awesome, but my favorite remains the peach, of course. I was actually afraid to try them at first, but there was a website where I could sign up for free samples and I got them to try. Awesome little buggers they are.