Stoopid allergies!

Woke up yesterday morning with red eyes, sore throat and a stuffed-up nose. That's what I get for actually thinking I was gonna be the only one not fucked by the pollen. Stupid me, right? Needless to say, I didn't go to work. I just knew I'd sit there at my desk and just be useless and miserable all day. Not worth it. I'd rather just sit at my desk and be useless, but happy. I did venture out for a bit to get my car washed. She looked so lovely, but this morning she was covered in a fine, yellow, dust-like coating. Some call it pollen. I call it disappointment. I knew it'd happen, but she needed to get cleaned badly. Started to look like a used-up hooker who didn't give her pimp his cut.

Take my blood, but not my...blood?

Went and had a blood test done, this morning. Yes. ANOTHER ONE. I actually put this one on hold for some time. Just been too gosh darn busy, lately. That, and, getting up at 6am sucks moose balls. Nothing eventful. No needles broke, sending streams of pulsating, red, viscous liquid everywhere. Though, I think a little kid crapped her pants. It sure smelled like it. There were a few older people in there. Maybe it was one of them. I don't really know, but I know the smell of soiled drawers, and someone sure as hell needs to take a trip to the cleaners. Wow, even when I don't talk about MY shit, someone else's shit somehow seems to sneak into a post. It's unavoidable, ladies and gentlemen. Deal with it.

I started adding the Spartacus Workout to my weekly health routine. Lemme just tell you that I had trouble just trying to get off the friggin' toilet bowl a day after the first routine. Sonofabitch, it's tough! If you don't know what it is, check it out here. It's a circuit of 10 exercises, each done for a minute. Being the pansy that I am, I'm just gonna ease it into my workouts and do one set instead of 3. I'll work my way up to that (I don't wanna vomit on the gym floor just yet). If the pain is any indication of success, this thing is a winner! Guess I'm just not used to these types of routines, yet. I've always just been more of a basic workout kinda guy. You know; lift this, lift that. I got a good feeling that this will help fill in the gap that's kept me from really progressing. Not that I'm looking to show up to work with no shirt on or anything, but to at least look in the mirror and actually NOTICE a difference, which in turn would mean I'm getting healthier as well.

Speaking of health... Can I just say that these last two months are the best I've felt in the last 2 YEARS! I'm knocking on every piece of wood I can, believe me. Seriously, I think Lent had a big part of it. That's both good and bad. Good because I have a better idea of what I should keep my diet as, but bad because no man should ever look at red meat and say "FUCK YOU!". It's just not right. Can you believe that I got mad that I saw red meat on my dinner plate last night? What the fuck is wrong with this picture? This is gonna take some getting used to.

Oh, almost forgot. Tomorrow I'll get to not only experience commuting into NYC during rush hour, but I'll get to put the iPad to some use outside of the confines of my room. I'm going to the Javits Center for a Photoshop seminar which should be very cool. I'm hoping that Mr. David Cross decides to give us a treat and show off some CS5 wonderment! That would make it sssoooooo fucking worth the travel. Can you believe my boss actually WANTS me to go to these things? I love my job. Sometimes. Not sure if I'll be hanging out there afterwards or if I'm coming straight home. Who knows. Might as well play it by ear. Hey, maybe I'll do a Apple store tour? I actually haven't been to a single one in the city. Yes, that's right. Not a single one! Another thing on the list I need to do. Fucking thing just doesn't get any shorter.

Stay awesome or stay down, fuckers!

- S

What a weekend!

Oh, man. Where do I begin? It's been a couple days so my thoughts are a little scrambled. Gonna need to really focus, here. Hmmm... Uh... Guess I should start from the beginning, eh?

Had some drinks Friday night with my buddy and his girlfriend. What a time that turned out to be. Silly of me to think I could go for just a drink and leave after an hour considering my friend and I had to be up early for the first golf round of the season. Yeah, um, 4 mojitos and 3 hours later... lol. You know it's a good time when a conversation about the upcoming movie PREDATORS leads to screaming in random peoples' faces because you think you're an actual Predator! It wasn't me doing it, either. Needless to say, My buddy was not in good shape the next morning. It's all good, though. You gotta cut loose sometimes. We both had some things to celebrate and we were so damn excited to play the next day.

So we had our round the next morning at Indian Island. As hungover as we were, it was hard to not be happy. It wasn't crowded. The weather was PERFECT. Just couldn't ask for a better time even when I played chicken with an errand shot. My buddy shanked it right at me and I didn't even move. I'd say the ball came within a foot of my head and I just watched it sail bye. It was awesome! So, obviously, we had our miss-hits, sure, but just laughed everything off and relaxed. I played much better than I expected to, and finished with an 89. I could've used a few do-overs on the back 9 - that stupid 4-putt on the last par 3 really pissed me off - but what're you gonna do? Had some great drives which I was very happy about. I think I was averaging around 280 on the good ones and my iron-play was pretty good. My putting needs work, but that comes with time.

Ended up leaving and, with the weather as good as it was, I just couldn't stay in. Luckily, my friend hit me up to go do lunch and I suggested we go down Port. She came over and we drove down and it was a MADHOUSE! It was expected, but no biggie. We had food and drinks at Tequilla Jack's. Yes, I returned to the scene of the crime. A few other people met up with us and it was just a lot of fun. Place was empty so we had the bar to ourselves for a few hours. Later on we all started walking around and venturing off to different spots. Eventually, everyone left so we decided to have dinner at Pace's. Not even sure how long we were there for, but we had a good conversation, paired along with good food and wine - you can't beat it. Oh, and someone more drunk than i was started playing 'Home Sweet Home' on a piano, so, naturally, I had to start singing. It got a few laughs so it's all good.

I woke up Sunday morning feeling like I didn't even sleep, which, to me, is worse than a hangover. I was just stumbling around all morning. I tried driving around, but couldn't shake it off. So, I did what turned out to be a bad move and go grocery shopping. I think I must've forgotten about a dozen items I needed, because I was concentrating more on not crashing into the stacks of crap at the end of every aisle. I think I even growled at someone. Not sure.

Came back home and - this is how out of it I was - my aunt and uncle were there helping my parents butcher a pig (I'm Portuguese, remember?) and when I asked 'em when they got there they said they were there all morning! We had some grilled pork cutlets which were amazing as usual. If you've never had them cut straight from the animal, you can't understand how good it actually is! Tried passing out afterwards but just couldn't sleep. I lumbered off to go check out a few more houses and, again, they were all crap. All except the last one. Really nice home built in 2005, but it ended up having a whole story behind it. Seems like a good deal considering it's new, but it has a small backyard (house is set far back because an old one was knocked-down in order to build this one) and it's actually a short sale. It wasn't stated on the listing because it's a different type of short sale, according to the owner, and wouldn't take the usual 6 months to a year process to get a deal through. Gonna have to mull that one over. Still waiting on the other one I put an offer on. This one I just saw is nice, but the other has better property and less taxes. Guess the waiting continues.

Got home and I reheated the leftovers from Pace's and watched Ninja Assassin, which I rented off PSN (love it!). What a good fucking movie! Sure, the story is predictable and nothing you haven't seen before: Ninja is betrayed. Ninja vows revenge. Girl gets involved. Blood. Blood. Blood. But you know what I say? Fuck it! It's a movie about ninjas!!!! They did some really cool things and I loved how the ninjas came off as a little more supernatural than I expected. Come on. Blurry objects moving from shadow to shadow? Awesome! You wouldn't even think that the main character Raizo is played by Rain; a KOREAN POP-STAR! Yes, he was THAT good and you can respect how much effort he put into the role.

Later that night, around 1am, I woke up with the worst stomach pains I've ever had. I was in the fucking bathroom shitting my brains out and trying not to vomit - I was not letting go of the leftovers! I really hope that's not what did it, but you never know. All I know is that I was in a lot of pain and I'm still not feeling well. I've actually gone to the bathroom twice while writing this lengthy-ass post. I think I have to go, again. Yep. Here I go...

Vaporize me, bitch!

Have I mentioned how much I love vapor patches? Thanks to spending more time than I would have like this passed weekend in the monsoon that just passed over Long Island, I'm a bit congested. I keep these vapor patches at work so when I feel like this, I just stick one under my desk and I get instant relief from the snotty, mucous mess clogging up my nose/throat/lungs. Plus, since it's under the desk, just above my crotch, I get the added benefit of cool balls! Awesome.

Health Sucks!

Another day, another doctor appointment. This crap is getting old real fast. Maybe, just maybe, they'll find out what's the continued cause of all my issues. Wait, I just realized, you have no idea what I'm talking about? Allow me to fill you in - I'll try to keep it quick.

It started in July '08. I had a respiratory infection that turned out to be a Pleural Effusion (sp?). Basically, I had fluid in between the two layers of tissues in my left lung. Took Avelox for a week. Didn't work. Then I was given Levaquin and Predinisone. FUCKED ME UP! I couldn't sleep for a week. I had the craziest heart palpitations (always starting at exactly 11pm - weird, right?). Thoughts of suicide. I was just a friggin' wreck. As soon as I was off of that stuff, I started to feel better. However, within a couple weeks it happened again. Not the lung part, but the heart issues. Scared the hell out of me, as can be expected. I went to a Cardiologist and he found no problems whatsoever, so that was a HUGE weight off my shoulders. Well, it didn't last long. Had another episode not long after.

I then started seeing a Gastroenterologist (I'll just refer to him as Gas-Man from here on out) because I had also developed really bad GERD (acid reflux disease). He put me on Nexium (WONDERDRRUUGG!!!!) and scheduled an Upper Endoscopy. Let me just say that it was the first time I was ever put under for anything and it was wonderful!

He didn't spot anything, thankfully. Again, another weight off my shoulders. So now it was like, what the hell could be wrong? I still had some episodes every now and again, but nothing major. Fast forward to April '09 and I had a really bad episode. Went to the hospital and had an ultrasound on my abdomen. They found polyps on my Gall Bladder which could be causing some pain, but not the other issues. So, once again, what the fuck is going on???

A couple days after, my sister, who works for a pharmaceutical company, told me about a conversation she had with a doctor. She told him what I was going through and he mentioned he had the same thing happen to him recently. He found out it was a reaction to MSG because he NEVER eats anything with it and had a dish at a restaurant he hadn't had before and, well, he got more than he wanted. But MSG!?! The wonderful flavor additive in Chinese food - my favorite cuisine after Portuguese food!?! No way! I love that stuff! Well, folks, I happened to have been eating Chinese food that weekend in April that I hadn't had in some time, and when I looked back at all the other episodes I had... yeah you know where this is going. Not only had I been eating a ton of Chinese food, but also the other foods I was eating had plenty of MSG in them. So, I started cutting it out and from April '09 until October '09 I was problem-free!

However, that isn't to say I haven't had issues. I still have very minor episodes, but it turns out that it can be either MSG or bad gas. I've adjusted my diet accordingly and it's helped quite a bit. Unfortunately, there are still other issues I gotta take care of, but things are looking up. One by one, House-style, we're getting things in order and patching me up.

Update:

The latest results from recent CT Scans show that I'm still here and still awesome!