Wahoo!

Wahoo! I did it! A whole month of posting on this blog, during the most stressful month I've had since graduation. Congrats out there to everyone that was able to participate.

This month has allowed me to get to know more people in the Diabetes Online Community and for me to share alittle bit more about myself. I hope to be able to keep up with posting frequently (no more gaps from February to June!) even with the busy months ahead.

As for tonight, dinner and the drinks out on the town to celebrate NaBloPoMo being over, it finally being December, and surviving week #1 at my new job!

Have an awesome weekend and see you Monday!

Same old

I'm glad that tomorrow is the last day of NaBloPoMo as for the last week, I've had pretty much nothing to write about. Blood sugars are trucking along, counting carbs, finding I have less time to sit and snack at work which is good for my numbers and for my waist line.

Maybe tomorrow I will have something inspiring to write or something. For now it's just the same old, same old.

Today

I'm reduced to bullets as I'm home late from dinner with my fam, and up early to try a new way to get to work.

-Uncle and Aunt in town before heading to NYC, so the fam went out for dinner at my favorite Tex-Mex joint. Always an experience.
-Work is going swimmingly. I love my job so far. People are great. Things are great.
-I think I may actually be able to pull this Christmas pageant thing off. Please remind me next year when I think about doing this again how stressed I've been.
-Wedding is in about 6 months. Time to put it in gear after the holidays.
- Thought of the day I heard today on the radio: "Our greatest danger in life is in permitting the urgent things to crowd out the important." So true.

Night!

Another Meme...Yes!

1. Were you named after anyone? Nope, my dad had a dream that he and my mom named me Allison. That's it!

2. When was the last time you cried? Yesterday, during a movie.

3. Do you like your handwriting? Yes, it's a mix of cursive and print and sort of small and boxy.

4. What is your favorite lunch meat? Turkey breast

5. Do you have kids? Nope

6. If you were another person, would you be friends with you? I think so. I'm alittle standoffish at first, and sometimes I can be sort of awkward.

7. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Not a tone

8. Do you still have your tonsils? Yes.

9. Would you bungee jump? Yes

10. What is your favorite cereal? Cheerios and Special K

11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Not normally. My shoes are mostly dress shoes or flip flops. I treat my tennis shoes like they are as well

12. Do you think you are strong? Physically, no. Mentally, it depends.

13. What is your favorite ice cream? Chocolate Chip from Baskin Robbins.

14. What is the first thing you notice about people? General appearance

15. Red or Pink? I like both.

16. What is your least favorite thing about yourself? My not so toned body

17. Who do you miss the most? My Nana and Papa

18. What color pants and shoes are you wearing? Gray pants with black flats

20. What was the last thing you ate? Manacotti...delicious and so carb-filled

21. What are you listening to right now? MTV- I think "Made" is on

22. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Periwinkle

23. Favorite smells? Cupcakes, cologne, Keri lotion (the brand my nana wears), apple pie

24. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? My dad

25. Favorite sports to watch? Softball

26. Hair color? Medium brown.

27. Eye color? Blue

28 .Do you wear contacts? Yeppers

29. Favorite food? Italian, or Mexican, or Ethnic food in general, or a cheeseburger.

30. Scary Movies or Happy Endings? Happy endings. I hate scary movies.

31. Last movie you watched? The Holiday on DVD yesterday.

32 What color shirt are you wearing? A white shirt with a pink sweater.

33. Summer or winter? Early summer or late fall.

34. Hugs or kisses? Hugs. Kisses from my fiance'.

35. Favorite dessert? Ice cream

36. What is on your mousepad? I have a laptop and use the touch pad

37. What did you watch on TV last night? Heroes and The Hills

38. Favorite sound? Laughing

39. Rolling Stones or Beatles? Beatles, I guess

40. What is the farthest you have been from home? Panama City, FL. My life is boring.

41. Do you have a special talent? Umm...I remember people really well. Like today, I saw a girl and remembered her name from a church thing I went to in 6th grade. Is that weird? Do you say, oh actually I've met you before or do I just pretend I met her for the first time?

Stress

I start my new job tomorrow and the Christmas pageant I'm directing is in less than two weeks. I'm slightly stressed (read: very stressed) and I tend to freak out a bit. My numbers go alittle crazy and I tend to snap at people, or just become a crying-blotchy-not-so-cute mess of a human being.

I wish that I had the personality that I could just take my own advice. I always tell my friends that they spend more time worried about the test/problem/appointment than the actually event itself, but I do the same thing. I worry for days/weeks/etc about certain things that I can't change.

Maybe it's having diabetes and always wanting to have the upper hand in most situations-being well informed, prepared for anything, ready for the worst- that makes me stressed out when I don't know what's going to happen (not knowing how the new job is going to pan out, making sure we have enough actors for the pageant and not knowing where the heck to even begin in trying to sort out my thoughts about the night of the pageant itself).

Thanks so much, Big D, for contributing to my already tightly wound, prone to stress personality.

The Basic Blog MeMe

1. How long have you been blogging?
I started my blog in September of 2006, during the fall semester of my senior year of college.

2. What inspired you to start a blog?
I was inspired by the blogs that I was reading and really wanted to be part of the Diabetes community that was emerging online

3. Are you trying to make money, or just doing it for fun?
I do this for fun, to learn more about other people that are living with diabetes, and as a somewhat creative outlet.

4. What are three things you struggle with online?
I struggle with finding things to post (because some days my life is boring), deciding how much to post about myself, and wanting to play a bigger part in the online community.

5. What are three things you love about being online?
Reading the stories that other people deal, being able to more adequately explain this disease to people I know by directing them to places where I know that it's so clearly explained (for example, sharing posts with my family and going, "this is how it is") and getting to know new people around the country/world.

6. And if you could entice someone else to start a blog, who would it be?
My fiance' or maybe my dad. They're the smartest guys I know.

Out

I'm out of things to blog about.

I saw a Meme circulating, which means I may have something to talk about tomorrow.

Black Friday

So on America's biggest shopping day, I managed to only buy something for myself. A black pencil skirt from the Gap. It fit perfectly and I know it's something I'll wear. My family always likes to get "in the midst of it" and today we did a good job of getting out early and hitting our favorite DC-area mall.

I've already gotten a good majority of my Christmas shopping done already and didn't find anything today that I just had to get. My family is rather small so I've picked things up for them over the last few weeks and am pretty much done. My fiance' and I are still trying to figure out what we're going to do for each other this Christmas.

Heading out on the town tonight to meet up with some friends, should be a good time.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you get to celebrate the day with family and friends!

Our turkey is in the oven and we're planning on eating around 2pm, then heading to the movies, a tradition in our family. What are your plans for today??

Home for the Holidays

At my parents' house for the holiday and just shared with them this blog and many of yours out there. Thanks for helping me explain how there are more people that feel sort of like me.

This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for you, OC!

Random 7 MeMe

Thanks for the tag, Jillian!

The Rules:
1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.
4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.

1) I was obsessed with the band 98 Degrees when I was in middle/high school during the boy band craze. (98 Degrees was the one with Nick Lachey) I saw them in concert twice and Jeff Timmons was my favorite member.

2) I have one younger sister, who is 16, but looks like she's about 5 years older than me. Whenever we go to family functions, everyone thinks she's the oldest. At orientation for college, 4 years ago, she got yelled at for being in the auditorium with my mom and not with her group. She explained that she was only in 7th grade.

3) I have a freckle between my big toe and second toe, on each foot. I think that's weird.

4) I have already purchased my wedding dress for my wedding in June. I've also purchased the bridemaid dresses,found the place, reserved the church, and designed the "save-the-date" cards. I guess I feel like I'm ahead of the game and that's weird to me.

5) I played Little Red Riding Hood in the Stephen Sondheim musical "Into the Woods" at my high school the last semester of my senior year. It was awesome and so much fun.

6) I love purses, shoes, and coats. I just picked out a new coat for Christmas! It's long, dark green, and has a very European feel with great buttons on the pockets. I love big leather bags, because I can put all my crap in them. And my favorite pair of shoes are a pair of black, leather, Ferregamo pumps that I got at Nordstrom Rack on sale when I was in school. Full price, I would have had to eat Top Ramen noodles for every meal for a year to pay for the them. Thank God for sales!

7) My favorite movie of all time is Can't Hardly Wait with Ethan Embry and Jennifer Love Hewitt. If I ever need a good laugh, I put it on. It's frickin hilarious.

Allison (Lemonade Life), Kassie, and anyone else who hasn't been tagged, give it a go!

Darn you, Water Heater!

I took this week off since I didn't want to start my new job right before a holiday. I came home from the gym this morning and got a loud knock on my door. A plumber sent by the condo association was at the door to inform me that there was a leak coming from somewhere in my condo. Unaware, I let the plumber break into the utility closet that our landlord didn't give us the key for, and of course, there's 2 inches of sitting water coming from our water heater.

They're sending another plumber out tomorrow to fix the valve that is broken, and a contractor to make sure there isn't any water damage to the wall and no mold since I'm allergic.

Ugh, it sucks to be an adult....can I go back to college?

Brothers and Sisters

I finished watching disc one of ABC's Brothers and Sisters and one of the characters has a daughter that was diagnosed with diabetes. I assume type 1 because she has all of the symptoms (going to the bathroom and drinking tons of water), but even in a scene where the family is in the hospital, they never say which type. Ergh...do any of you all watch Brothers and Sisters???

More about "Him"

Ross and I met for the first time when we were in 9th grade, during Mr. Pell's Social Studies class. He was a smart guy who played soccer, but I was interested in other people. He was dating a girl named Allison but I always thought he was really cute.

Fast forward two years. My good friend Stefanie, who I played softball with, liked Ross and I would throw the softball over hear head during warm-ups so that she would have to talk to Ross to get it. That summer she started dating Ross' best friend.

A few months later, a mutual friend of ours invited me over to hang out and after a night of truth or dare. I realized that Ross was a really cool guy. That week we talked online and hung out. He invited me to see Ocean's 11 with him on a Saturday evening and he kissed me after he walked me to my car. The next day, after school, he called me and asked me to be his girlfriend.

We dated throughout high school, and decided to try and make it work when we went to college, 2 hours apart, even though everyone including our parents told us that it probably wouldn't work out. We broke up for 4 days during the first month of freshman year in college.

We've been together ever since. He encourages me to be a better person and pushes me to follow me dreams. He's one of the most loving people that I have ever met. He challenges me, but also makes me realize that life is sometimes not as serious as I believe that it is. He's loud and outgoing and I am more quiet and reserved.

I didn't believe in high school love and never thought that when I agreed to go out with an awkward high school junior that he would turn into the most driven, handsome, 23 year old that I could have imagined.

And in June, he's going to be my husband.

Another new beginning

Today was my last day at my job. On the 27th I start my new position doing marketing for a fairly large health NPO. I'm super excited because I believe so strongly in the mission of this organization and hope that by being there I can contribute to the work they're are doing.

For the next week, I get to relax, get my apartment organized, go to some doctor's appointments, and spend some time with my family. I'm super excited to start my new adventure.

Alone

A low. One that sneaks up on you. When you're not expecting it. It scares you because you were fine. And then you're not. In a strange place. You're just trying to get things done. I was trying to get some pictures printed to send to my family. Derailed. Digging through the bag. Meter, Checker, Strip. Check.

50. Fruit snack.

And then the feeling that if something was to happen I was in the middle of DC on a cold, rainy night. And there was no one around who could help me if I needed it. I try and be courageous and normally believe that being prepared is the key to this disease.

But being prepared today didn't make me feel less alone.

World Diabetes Day

Even though, as another blogger mentioned, everyday is World Diabetes Day for us that live with this disease, I would like to hope that we made strides today in informing other people about how much diabetes can affect the lives of people. Thanks to the organizations that helped to make diabetes more visible today. Even though nothing was happening in DC, it was great to see some of the pictures from around the world.

Happy(sorta?) World Diabetes Day to you!

Sicko

I rented Michael Moore's Sicko since my fiance' is out of town. Interesting movie that you sort of have to take with a grain of salt. It brought up some pretty valid points though. Has anyone seen it? What are you thoughts on it?

My favorite part of the whole movie was when Moore was interviewing a British couple who have just had a baby in a London hospital. The child is absolutely beautiful and he yells "How much did you have to pay for that baby???" and the couple gets the most ridiculous look on their faces. It cracked me up.

I don't think they'll let me back in Giant

Tonight, after the fiance' boarded his plane to Nevada for work, I ventured out to get a few movies (Brothers and Sisters: Season 1 and Sicko) and headed to Giant to pick up some groceries for this week. I needed to get some gluten-free pasta and veggies to go in a pasta salad I'm making for my office potluck on Wednesday and some staples to get me through the week being by myself (Ben and Jerry's Low Fat Cherry Garcia and yogurt).

After going through the self checkout, I reached into my huge bag for my wallet. Digging around, meter case, extra infusion sets, sunglasses, checkbook- awesome. OK, I can write a check however ancient that might be. I realize my wallet is in the pocket of my coat (it's a small one, I put it there yesterday after I got gas), but I can pay for my groceries since I have my checkbook. Wrong. I need my license to right a check.

After being pretty much humiliated it front of the cashier that walked over to my self checkout, I tell them I'm going home to get my wallet. They save my order, I void my check, and they keep my bags. I hightail to the closest exit to set off the emergency alarm.

About half way home, I decided I wasn't going back. I'm not sure how I could have walked back there without being completely embarrassed. I 411ed Giant on my way home and explained that I would not be coming back, but I had some perishable items that they might want to put away, and thanked them.

I found my wallet. And headed to Safeway. And thought of putting two pints of Ben and Jerry's in my cart, because it's been that kinda of day.

Family

My family is changing. In about 6 months, I'm gaining another family. Yep, after I get married, I'll have a sister-in-law and brother-in-law to add to my small, but cozy family. Along with my new mom and dad-in-law. I'm excited to have a few more people to pick on and joke around with. I played some Guitar Hero with my future BIL tonight and had an overall great time.

My future MIL is a great cook and made the best beef stew I've ever eaten. It was delicious on a cool day like today. Since Ross, my fiance', and I have been together for 6 years, I feel like I've known his family for forever. We started dating when we were 17, dated through college (and long distance, no less) and got engaged in March. I'm excited to start a life with him and become a bigger part of his family.

Nothing like it

There's nothing like having dinner at a really great restaurant with your fiance' to start the weekend off. On Thursday night we went to Vapiano's, a really cool pasta and pizza place. The carb estimation was alittle off because of the homemade pasta and fresh tomatoes. But we ended up having a great time at a really cool bar called 1223, or MCXXIII (I think?) on the outskirts of Dupont Circle. A pretty relaxed atmosphere and normally a great open bar special on Thursday (6-9pm, $15, all you can drink) and on Friday (5-9pm, $20, all you can drink).

Last night, the fiance' and I picked up Guitar Hero for our Wii. Needless to say, my wrist and forearm are killing me. I didn't think I would like the game, but it's crazy addictive! We also met up with my younger sister who crashed at our place last night. We got up this morning and decided to spend the day walking around Georgetown. We grabbed lunch at Johnny Rocket's and then managed to walk a few miles through the neighborhood, down to the waterfront, past the Watergate Hotel and the Kennedy Center, and then through the GW campus to Foggy Bottom. My sister is 6 years younger than me, so it was great to get to spend some time with her since the last 4 years I've been away at school. I make it a policy to see my family atleast once a week since I only like about 22 miles away from them.

I'm back at my parent's tonight as tomorrow at my church I'm recruiting people for our outdoor Christmas Pageant. Yes, I'm directing it. And yes, it's proving to be much more work than I thought.

Ugh, the blood sugar is high again after dinner with my parents at my favorite Tex Mex place...gotta go and take care of that, nothing like trying to correct a crazy high.

D-Blog Day Thank You

Thanks to a community that inspires me to write about my struggle with this disease, that makes me feel like I'm just like them, that leaves comments that explains that they understand, amd makes me feel alittle more normal.

Thank You Diabetes OC

A night out and a short post

I'm starting the long weekend off right with a Thursday night date with my fiance' and then a happy hour event with his coworkers, so who knows what time I'll be home.

We celebrated a coworkers bday today with a gluten free cake that I thought was much more carb friendly than I expected. Clocked in at a 53 mg/dl and am nursing a regular Mt. Dew. I used to be obsessed with Code Red Mt. Dew pre 'betes, but now not so much. How did I drink this stuff?

Hopefully a nice report on the DC nightlife to come tomorrow!

Meltdown

I was fine.

Then, I wasn't.

I was a stupid fight over how many noodles I should have with my stir fry. How many were in the bowl progressed to how I felt about myself, then how I felt about this disease. He was trying to take care of me because of what he read, because he cares. He read watch "your carbs for better control." He was only trying to make sure that I'm ok.

It was like my brain completely shut off. I was mad, then all of a sudden I was so sad. I didn't want to talk, I threatened to leave, and then as he held me, I just explained that I hate this.

I hate this disease for making me feel like I did tonight. Out of control. How it makes me feel about myself and how it's the one thing that as hard as he tries, he'll never understand completely.

I said some awful things. To the one person that I truly would do anything for and who I love. Because he was trying to help me. Because he loves me. Because he's going to be my husband in a few short months. I must learn to let him help me.

I know he would take this away if he could and I wish tonight that he could have taken it away. I wish that the word diabetes never came into play when we talked about our future, about our family, or when we talk about our daily dinner.

I wish tonight that I didn't have diabetes.

Let's Dish

Since I'm finding this NaBloPoMo thing more difficult that I thought, I've resulted to searching the Internet for themes for certain days.I found a site (TMI Tuesdays) that provide some questions that I'll try and write about here.

And since some of the questions are WAAAYYYY TMI, I picked a mild one: What did you eat for dinner yesterday?

Last night, we fixed bbq pork tenderloins with baked potatoes and salad. I do this thing once a month called Let's Dish where you go to a kitchen facility after ordering meals online and prepare the meals using all of their ingredients, recipes, and dishes. The menus are awesome and we end up not eating the same thing over and over again. You do all of the prep work at the kitchen facility and then package everything in freezer bags. When you're ready to eat the meals you take the freezer bags out, let them defrost, then most take under 30 minutes to cook through either in the oven or on a grill (we use our George Foreman ALL the time!) It's great for Ross, my fiance', and I because we love great food, but don't have a ton of time. Makes dinner alittle less work after a day at the office!

Reading

Now that I take the Metro to and from my office I've been able to actually start reading for pleasure again. After 4 years of reading for classes, it's great to relax on the train with a book. I finished Cheating Destiny by James Hirsch a few weeks ago and was completely impressed. If you haven't read it, do it! It's awesome and is probably going to be gracing the Christmas stockings of my mom and dad.

My fiance' just finished reading it and the conversations that it has started has been awesome. I feel like he has learned more from the book than he has in the 6 years we've been together. It's great to be able to discuss diabetes with him and feel like he understands. A few weeks ago, he even let me test his blood sugar (118mg/dl after eating....bastard!) just to see what it was.

Right now, I'm reading Gluten Free Girl. I don't have celiac but I love reading the author's blog, http://www.glutenfreegirl.com/ and her book is proving to be a great read.

Check them out if you haven't!

Doctor's appt

I have a follow-up endo appointment tomorrow with a somewhat new doctor. I get stressed out to go to the doctor's in the first place. And I know the doctor is going to be looking at my numbers and I'm going to be trying to justify them. (Does anyone else feel like that? You show up with your log book/computer print outs and you have to go "I have no idea what happened there....and there....and there....oh, and there!)

My A1c went down from an 8 to a 7.1 so I feel like we have good things to talk about. We also have to try and figure out some thyroid stuff.

Will update you all tomorrow!

Have an awesome evening!

Saturday

Ah, the weekend! Nothing like sleeping in and being lazy and doing all the stuff that I've managed to ignore this week. Grocery shopping, making a delicious dinner, and relaxing.

Last night, Ross (my fiance') and I went out downtown around George Washington University with some friends. Nothing like having a few drinks and hanging out.

We're trying to figure out what to do tonight...but chances are, we'll end up staying in and watching a movie.

Happy Saturday!

Dear Perez

Dear Perez Hilton (aka the Queen of All Media),

Thanks for posting about Halle Berry today and generating more than 200 comments in about an hour. As I sat at my desk and watched the number of responses to your entry about Halle Berry's completely crazy statement about weaning herself off of insulin, I was amazed by people's reaction. There was the ever present "F-U Perez!!!" and "You're fat Perez!" but there was also comments from Type 1s like me who fill their minds with your celeb coverage like it's crack (or candy, for us PWDs). Comments like "I'm a Type 1 diabetic and there is no cure" generated responses of "it is possible in some circumstances to get off insulin if you’re a type 1 diabetic" and even a mention of Type 1 diabetes meaning a mental disease.

Perez, I do not have a mental disease. I'm not a hypochondriac that read something and thought I could have diabetes nor did I start exhibiting the symptoms of diabetes on purpose. I did not do anything to my body to viciously start attacking itself. I do what I have to do to live and that is give myself insulin through an insulin pump. I monitor my blood sugar 5-10 times a day and I try and do whatever I can to keep myself healthy. I value this life and I chose everyday to live proudly with diabetes. If there was something that I could do to not have diabetes, I would gladly do it. If it was to eat raw foods, I would try it. (But having tried to educate myself as much as I can, I don't think that will help...can someone say starvation diet and how that didn't work in the long run?)

Thank you Perez for giving diabetes a place today in mainstream popular culture. Thank you for trying your best to tell people that there is a difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes even though you may have had your information alittle bit wrong. Thank you for starting a dialogue that includes at present 340 comments from people who know alot about diabetes, and from people who know very little.

Thanks for starting National Diabetes Awareness Month off with a bang, Perez.

(And Halle, don't you think you've stuck your foot in your mouth enough these days? You may be a beautiful woman and a talented actress, but one thing you are not is informed)

Many thanks,
Allison

(check out the original post at http://www.perezhilton.com/ on the 2nd page)

Day 1: I almost blew it

So I almost blew it on day one.

I thought about posting today at work, but was slightly preoccupied because I GOT A JOB OFFER! Yes, I pretty much got an offer for my dream job. Everything is still in the works but I'm excited to start something new (after 6 months at my current job, sometimes you just know where you're supposed to be.)

Anyways, it's a great way to start out National Diabetes Month and I'm happy to be writing about it here on Tales of a Twentysomething

If you're doign NaBloPoMo, leave me a comment so I can check out your blog!