P's New Clothes

Now that I have all these new clothes, it's taking me longer to get ready in the morning as I try to pick out an outfit.  It would probably help if I hung everything up where I can see it.  Everything is still in the bags so I go searching through them each morning.  I started cleaning out my closet to make room for them, but I just got overwhelmed and am having a hard time taking much out, even things I haven't worn for years or that don't fit me.  Also, I'm finding that my new clothes are making my old shoes look horrible!

My Monday outfit wasn't too exciting...new pants with an old shirt.  Tuesday I wore my favorite of the outfits, tan pants, a bright pink blouse and a denim blazer.  I was waiting and hoping for a complement, and it finally came late in the day in the ladies room.  Wednesday was all new but just black pants and a "nice" t-shirt.  Thursday was another completely new outfit and a co-worker said, "love love love the outfit" while gesturing with her hand up and down at me.  Yeah!  Friday was a repeat of the black pants with an old top.  So I got 2 complements at work and another from a salesperson while I was out shopping one night, but I don't really count that one. 

Now I'm trying to get my guts up to wear a skirt and sleeveless blouse to work next week since it's going to get hot again. I haven't worn a skirt to work since I lived in CA and I always wore pantyhose back then. I wore skirts most days in CA.  My current place of employment isn't a pantyhose kind of place, and I have no desire to wear them either.  I might need to go get a spray tan before wearing this outfit.

A couple of you have asked for pictures.  I tried doing the picture in the mirror thing, but it didn't turn out well.  I'll try to figure something else out.

Worst TV Performance EVER

How did this even make it on TV???  Real Housewife of New Jersey, Danielle, is trying to sing...and not succeeding.

 

Operation New Wardrobe

Operation New Wardrobe was in full swing this weekend.  I shopped both Saturday and Sunday to the point of being exhausted.  My husband had no sympathy for me.  It was both mentally and physically tiring for me for some reason.  It felt like work and wasn't much fun.  He said I need to get out of my comfort zone so I was trying on all sorts of things to see what would work.  I have bags and bags of new stuff sitting in the living room and I'm afraid to see what it looks like in my mirror at home and if I still like it all.  Now the big question...what am I going wear to work on Monday???

Skinny Mirrors

I am in the need of practically an entire new wardrobe, especially for work.  I used to dress a lot nicer back in CA, but the company I work for here is quite causal.  I've now been there for six years and I've been getting more and more casual.  I remember my first week when I dressed nice for Monday through Thursday, then wore jeans on Friday.  The person who was training me, who wore jeans and a sweatshirt every day (I'm not this bad), told me, "you can wear jeans every day you know".   I didn't take her seriously at first, but now looking back, I miss dressing nicer. 

The Happiness Project is a book about a woman spending one year doing things to try to make herself happier.  Not that she is unhappy, but she wants to improve things.  She spent each month for a different subject and one of them was about cleaning out the clutter.  One thing she did was clean out her closet and it inspired me to want to do the same.  My closet is stuffed with clothes...most that I don't wear.  It's time to clean it out and make room for a new wardrobe!

Now my challenge is finding clothes I like.  I've been terribly uninspired most of the time when I go into stores.  Now that I have my new attitude of dressing nicer at work (although not too formal since I wouldn't fit in), maybe I'll find some things I like.  I went to Ann Taylor Loft a couple nights ago.  I usually like their clothes, but they don't tend to look good on my body.  I decided to just start trying things on and see what works and for some reason almost everything I tried on was too big and I had to get smaller sizes.  Once I had clothes that fit, I was surprised how good everything was looking and how skinny I looked!  I have lost a few pounds recently, but I looked even thinner than I thought.  I ended up buying a pair of slacks, a skirt and a shirt.  When I got home I tried them on again...but they didn't look so good.  I've convinced I was the victim of a "skinny mirror".  I still like the clothes, and they do fit, I just don't look the way I thought I did in them.  I think the store was trying to play to my ego...the clothes run big so I feel good buying a smaller size and then the mirror are likely tilted to make me look thinner.  It's a great feeling in the store, but then a downer when I see myself at home.  I guess it's better than those dreaded 3 way mirrors at Bloomingdale's that make everything about me (including my hair) look horrid.

Have you ever been the victim of a skinny (or fat) mirror!

The Hunger Games

Imagine that each state had to give up one boy and one girl each year to fight in the ultimate reality show where only one comes out alive.  Oh and everyone else if forced to watch it on TV.  Welcome to The Hunger Games.

This is an incredible book that I can't imagine anyone not liking!  I bought it for my husband when we went to Mexico to make sure he would stay entertained since he doesn't sit still well and all he wanted to do each day was get under the palapa so he could keep reading it.  Perfect!!!  Once he was done he kept telling me to read it.  I read another book first but once I started The Hunger Games, I did not want to put it down.  It pulls you in right away and keeps it up all the way through.  I won't tell you too much, but trust me that you WILL like this book. 

The Hunger Games is the first book in a trilogy.  The second book, Catching Fire, was a good book, but not as good as The Hunger Games.  The final book, Mockingjay, comes out next week and I've already pre-ordered it on Amazon.

Wheel of Torture

My mom loved watching Wheel of Fortune.  My brothers and I affectionately called it Wheel of Torture...I'm not sure why since I liked the show.  I remember the days where they had to use the money they won to buy horribly over priced prizes like the games for $50 or the giraffe statue for $250 since they had to use up all the money.  Luckily now they get to keep the money.  I just watched an episode and decided this is a game show that I could actually do so I signed up to be a contestant on their web site!  Haha!!!!  I can't imagine anything will come of this, but it was fun to do on a whim.

Teenage Dream

I'm really liking Katy Perry lately.  Waking Up in Vegas, California Gurls and now Teenage Dream which is different from her other hits, but I like it!  I also think she's really pretty with the less make up look in this video.  I can tell the video was filmed in Santa Barbara, where Katy grew up and I went to college, so it brings back fond memories for me as well.

Watch the video here:
Teenage Dream by Katy Perry

Let Suri Have Friends Already

Suri Cruise doesn't have any friends.  She spends all her time with her mom and her dolls.  Now they say Suri, 4, is going to be home schooled!!!!  Let this little girl try to be normal and play with other kids.  People say she acts too much like an adult for her age, and it's not surprising since it's only adults she spends time with. If not, eventually she is going to let loose and do whatever she wants.  I'd hate to see her be the next "celebrity" addict. 

New Weeds

The next season of Weeds starts up tomorrow!  I love this show and as you know I watched the first 5 seasons recently on Netflix.  Now I need to sign up for Showtime to get the new season.  If you want to watch it, I recommend watching the old seasons first to get caught up.  I think they can be watched for free on the Showtime's web site because it has evolved quite a bit from how it started.  It went from being funny and quirky to dark and serious.  From what I have read, this season is expected to get back to being funny again, but we'll see.  They have been able to keep the story moving and interesting for 5 seasons so I trust the 6th will be good as well.

Bloggers Block

I have bloggers block.  I just don't have much interesting to say lately.  I don't want to be all Debbie Downer with my health problems and I can't think of what else to write about.  Can you believe I was having a pretty good day today with how I felt...until while I was out on my walk, some green round hard thing fell out of a tree and hit me on the head!  What are the odds of this???  The trees are really tall and it was like a rock falling on my head.  So now I have a bump and a headache...and anxiety that it did some damage to me and will make my headaches worse again.  Anyway...so to cure my bloggers block, what do I do???  Start planning a new blog!  I know you've heard this before with Beaches & Bananas which has only 2 posts.  Now get ready for Postcards from Patrice, unless I decide to change the name.  Maybe I will actually post to that one.  I think I like the process of creating blogs rather than actually doing the writing.

Bad TV

The first two days after my surgery I basically just rested on the couch in the living room.  It was also my bedroom post-op since I needed to be elevated and it was easier to do this on the couch.  After two days in the living room, I was done with it and then spent the next two days in the family room watching TV.  There's not much on TV in the middle of the day in the middle of summer so I am ashamed to tell you what I watched!  It didn't take a lot to entertain me for those two days so I will admit to watching Kloe and Kourtney Take Miami.  I even got into it!  Now I like reality TV, but I have always thought of the Kardashian shows as dribble...and they are, but I actually wanted to know what happened next.  Would Kourtney and Scott reconcile?  Would Kloe come back?  Who would take care of Scott after his surgery?  I even felt bad for Scott since he had surgery (in a drunken rage he hit a mirror) and nobody would drive him home or stay with him.  It would have sucked to not have C there for me in the time after my surgery.  Starting on Friday I was feeling up to doing more and was sick of the family room so I  moved onto the deck.  On Sunday I watched the newest episode of K&K Take Miami and couldn't believe how bored I was!  Good thing that phase is over. 

The Worst is Over

I do believe I've come out the other side.  The surgery is done and I'm feeling somewhat myself again.  I don't have a lot of energy, my nose and face are sore and am I'm congested like I have a cold, but overall I can't complain.  My sinuses were opened up and my deviated septum was straightened.

Monday morning I woke up and was nervous.  I cried and hugged C at home and he told me to "pull it together".   Not really what I wanted to hear, but what I needed to hear.  After that I was all optimism and good spirits.  I even did a little Rocky impersonation before putting on my gown to show I was ready.  The surgery was done in a "surgery center" next to a main hospital so this place moved along pretty quickly since no emergencies went through it.  After being asked about 14 times if I could be pregnant (even though I had a blood test done) and if I had anything to eat or drink, I put on my gown, had a bunch of drugs put into my IV and was on my way to the OR.  They didn't even pause for me to say goodbye to C...I yelled over my shoulder, but he didn't hear me.  Anesthesia is very interesting to me, as they wheeled me to the OR I was asked if I was sleepy yet (no) and then I'm in the OR on another table with people putting something under my arms.  Next thing I know I'm in the recovery room.  I'm so happy they left my glasses on until I was sleeping and put them back on me before I woke up.  I was nauseous and shivering and my nose hurt, which they took care of and then I was put in a reclining chair and wheeled to a recovery area where they brought C to see me.  The last 2 hours of my life didn't exist to me.  From when we left home to being back home was about 4.5 hours.

The recovery process has been a little different each day.  I didn't have an appetite for a couple days and narcotics keep me awake so my eating and sleeping habits have been weird.  My nose bled the first day so I had a stylish piece of gauze taped under my nose.  I felt surprising well when I got home, although I later realized it was from the concoction of drugs put in my IV.  It took some trial and error to get the pain meds right at home.  Nothing totally cut the pain, but kept it mild most of the time.  Once the anesthesia and pain meds worked their way through my system and I switched to just Tylenol, I have felt better.  I don't have a lot of energy and I'm really congested.  I had splints in my nose that made me really congested with nowhere for it to go, and that was miserable, but those splints were taken out today.  They hurt coming out, but they also hurt being inside my nose too.  Dr. asked if I wanted to see them...nope, no thank you.  He said some people want to see them and even take them home.  The sinus part of the surgery doesn't cause too much pain.  The deviated septum is what causes a longer recovery.  The inside of my nose was basically cut apart an then re-sowed together.  Oh and I had to sleep sitting as upright as possible which was hard for me because it's bad for my neck and causes more neck pain and headaches.  I've been sleeping on the couch since I had a ramp of pillows to push me upward.  The Dr. told me today I can try sleeping in a normal position as long as I don't bleed.  All the things I need to do (or not do) is about avoiding bleeding.   No hot showers, no hot foods, no bending/lifting/hanging my head down, no exercise.  Bleeding is bad. 

I didn't have any bruising, but my nose was a bit swollen.  Not so much that it looked weird, but if you knew me, you'd know it was a little big.  It made it hard for me to talk coherently and C could barely understand me.  I had to cut food into little pieces to get it in since it was hard to open my mouth wide.  After getting the splints out to day and my nose cleaned out, this is much better now.

Now I just need to take it easy.  Doc says the first week will be the worst.  I'm not sure how long until I'm deemed "recovered", but Doc tells me to be patient because there is a lot of swelling. 

I'll be happy to sleep in my bed tonite.   THANK YOU to everyone who sent well wishes or gifts...I really appreciate the support, even though I wasn't in the mood to talk in the last few days to tell you myself.

Going Under

My surgery is on Monday morning so it might be quiet here for a little while.  Hopefully I'll recover quickly and will be here writing all about it within two to three days.  Doc says it will take about a week for me to feel like myself again so I'm off work the entire week to rest.  From what I've read, the hardest parts of the recovery will be that I won't be able to breathe through my nose and I need to sleep sitting up, preferably in a recliner, but we don't have one so pillows will be arranged to hold me up.  I admit I'm nervous since this is my first ever surgery (unless you count wisdom teeth coming out).