I'm alive...just been focused on getting better

Thanks for checking on me, you ladies rock and I appreciate that you were checking on me.

My trip to Seattle to visit my son was really good. He's growing up fast being out on his own and far from home and it was actually just pleasant and fun to hang out with him and his roomie for a week. I made his favorite foods for dinner (with plenty of leftovers to come back to after I'd gone home.) We went shopping so I could show him how to feed himself for cheap for a month. Visited some cousins and connected him with family and friends I know up there. Drank some red wine with him and his roomie every evening and showed him how to make a cheap red wine taste pretty darned good!

First trip off the plane was a to Ulta so I could get what I needed to keep my nails in shape. (I carried baggage ON and you can't take flammable stuffs. So I picked up a bunch of polish that I left behind except for one. (more on that maybe in another post.) Do I have photos? No, my camera died and so I never thought about taking pictures until just about the last day there. That is when I took this picture:

It's a picture I took at Gas Works Park which is about 10 blocks south and 5 blocks west of where he lives.

Yeah, the weather pretty much sucked the whole time I was there. Took me over a week to get over my seasonal depression coupled with missing him...it was a rough week and a half. My poor husband. LOL

Just before I left, I spent a few days at Physical Therapy and got some exercises and stretches I could do on my trip. I got a little better while I was away too!  Since I've been home, I've been focused on doing my Physical Therapy exercises and making my appointments. It's paying off. Last night, for the first time in over a year, I slept all night without pain and without the aid of Ibuprofen or Naproxen, (Motrin or Aleve if you want brand names.) At PT yesterday, I was weeping tears of joy and pain at the same time...because, though there is still pain, I am releasing the fear around the pain and allowing my body to relax and get through it. There is a huge lesson in that for me and I believe that is why I am healing. Of course, the therapy is a big deal since it's stretching muscles that were so tight they weren't moving anymore and building muscles that had gone to sleep since the frozen muscles were doing all the work. I even rode my bike for 10 mins and it was WONDERFUL!!! I get to ride for 10 mins a day for a week and if all goes well, I can increase in 10 min increments over the weeks ahead. Soon, I'll be back to riding to work...ok, maybe not soon, but at least I have that to look forward to again...and riding on the weekends to downtown Santa Barbara and back. So. Much. Fun. I. Can't. Wait. (but I have to.)

So, I guess what I'm saying is, I'm crawling out of my hole...And I do have a couple photos of some past manis to share. First up is Cheeky Monkey Get Wet. What can I say, I love Cheeky Monkey. I love the colors, the names, the idea, the owner and goodness...the formula is to die for. I think this is from 4 days of wear too:

Taken in morning light with my new Droid phone. Not too shabby! And again, this is after 4 days of wear.

I got a swap package from Konadomania (More on that later too) and picked the Sh-E holographic polish. It was interesting...It was my holographic mannequin hand color. Kinda cool!

Hard to tell the whole mannequin hands thing, but in the shade it was pretty close. Then in the sun it was all, Wham! Pow! :) It's pretty! Thanks Ms. Konadomania!

On another note, I sent a request to Clarin's today using this link: Ask Clarins  to bring Clarins 230 back. I got a response saying they'd forward it to research and development. Let's all drop them a note to bring it back and maybe if they get enough requests they will? Let's at least try. What do you say ladies??? Who's with me??? :)