Walking pain

For the past month or so I have been walking around in pain. From a quick search on the internet, I figured that it was due to wearing flip flops this summer while commuting to and from work and on the weekends. I love my Teva flip flops, but also know that they are not very supportive for my feet.

I finally went to see a doctor about it and the first thing the office wanted me to do was get an X-ray. Wait, so you want my insurance company (and me) to pay for an X-ray that I might not need? Why don’t I get to see the doctor first and THEN he can decide that I need an X-ray? It didn’t matter anyway because as soon as I got into the X-ray room I saw a sign saying that if you are pregnant or may be pregnant to tell the nurse. Because it is a slight possibility, I got the nurse and we decided to put off the X-ray until visiting with the doctor.

Turns out I didn’t need an X-ray and I have Plantar fasciitis. It makes me laugh that it is what is wrong with me because as of about a year ago, every time I heard that an NFL player had the same thing, I would wonder why so many football players were getting warts on their feet! Thankfully I am NOT the only one that equated Plantar fasciitis with warts….as soon as I told CP about the diagnosis he said, “you have warts?!?”

So no, I don’t have warts, but the tissue that runs from my heel to the sole of my right foot is inflamed and it hurts. I am in the most pain in the morning when I get out of bed, but even walking a lot hurts.

Image via Google Health

I seem to have some of the common causes of Plantar fasciitis:

· Foot arch problems (I have high arches)

· Sudden weight gain (Sadly I have gained back ALL of the weight I lost for the wedding which means I kept the weight off through January and have since gained 30 pounds. GAH!)

· Tight Achilles tendon (I really need to take up yoga. My muscles are way too tight, despite the fact that I stretch after working out).

While I am glad that I finally know what is wrong with my heel, it still sucks. With stretches and applying pressure to the tissue a few times a day I may be able to walk and run without pain in a few months. My doctor said that there is no reason for me to stop running in the meantime (I say that like I have been running more than once every two weeks- ha!).

Meanwhile I am PISSED at myself that I gained all of the weight that I lost so hard to get rid of. I desperately need to join a gym to get back into a routine. Losing weight will do wonders for my self esteem (not wanting to take your clothes off for your husband when you are trying to get pregnant makes conceiving more difficult) and will hopefully alleviate some of the pain I am having in my foot.

So yeah, time to buckle down on the eating and start working out again. *sigh*

Crossing the line with a coworker?

Recently I went out with a bunch of friends from various stages in my life. We were having a good time at the bar when one friend asked if another friend was maybe having “too much fun” with one of her coworkers.

The friend in question who might have been “having too much fun” has been married about a year and a half, but her husband did not join us that night because he was busy planning a bachelor party.

At first it was just a coworker putting his arm around another coworker. I haven’t done that with anyone that I work with, but she actually has coworkers her age that she hangs out with after work. So maybe that is a bit different? Then a few minutes later she was riding a motorcycle arcade game- like the one below.

Except then her coworker jumped on the back of it with her to play the game- which included leaning from side to side as you made turns.

It was weird. Awkward. Etc.

Everyone agreed that it was going too far. CP and I both said that it would not be appropriate for the other one to do that. Note: I’m happy we are on the same page about this because I would certainly NOT be okay with him doing this.

Anyway, when I went to the bathroom with her a few minutes later, I asked her about it. She said that she thinks her coworker is actually gay and that she feels like his big sister. Nothing weird going on at all. I’m not sure she convinced me- but is it even her job to convince me?

Whenever I get into a relationship, I think that I actually go out of my way to make it known to strangers that I am with someone. Granted, a coworker is not a stranger, but he knows that she has a husband and is still really touchy-feely with her. And she allows it. Does she just want attention? Are there already problems in their marriage? Is there something actually going on with them? I can’t imagine her actually doing it in front of us, but then again, she only really talks to me out of everyone in the group….and I don’t keep in touch with her husband.

I’m not sure what to think. I mean, in a way I did kind of the only thing that I thought I could do (asking her about it in the bathroom) being that she lives in DC and I’m up in CT. It’s really not my place to do anything if something is going on, but would consider her a sh*tty person for cheating on her husband.

Have you ever been put in this situation? How would you deal with it?

Dragging

It might be because it is Monday, or because it is raining, or because we hit traffic on our way up from NJ, but I am dragging today! It might also be because of our busy weekend.

Friday night we saw Anthony Bourdain in Springfield, MA. Beforehand we went to dinner at The Federal. Dinner there was DELICIOUS. French onion soup is a favorite of mine and this restaurant puts braised short ribs into the soup. It was a meal itself! My entrée was a special for the day- salmon over corn chowder. I couldn’t possibly resist having two of my favorite soups in the same meal! Needless to say, if you are ever in Springfield, I would highly recommend this restaurant!

Anthony himself was funny. I wasn’t sure what he was going to talk about, but he does have a new book out, Medium Raw. CP has read the first few pages of it and thinks that a lot of the talk came from stories in the book. I didn’t care since I haven’t read the book yet. My favorite line from the entire night? He was talking about being a guest judge on Top Chef Season 3 when Dale made scallops in caramel sauce. “It tasted like I was felching Mrs. Butterworth.” Ahhhh Anthony you didn’t disappoint.

Saturday we headed down to my aunt and uncle’s house in NJ. My aunt recovered my grandmother’s couch for us and so we decided to pick it up and attend her cider making party! Little did we know that it was a major party…..

The giant clam with shrimp and different kind of oysters. CP was in heaven with the oysters.

The cute tables

The cider press machine.

As you can see, my aunt goes a little over the top with her parties. CP and I had a great time catching up with my cousin who I haven't seen in a while and came home with two liters of freshly-pressed cider! However, we hit a bunch of traffic on our way home which CP wasn't too happy about as he was stuck driving the U-haul truck.

This coming weekend is our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! We don't have any solid plans yet, but we will be spending the weekend enjoying our new home. We don't have the cash to go anywhere and I am actually looking forward to not traveling.

Did you do anything fun this weekend?

Away again

Why pay our mortgage when we are never home? :-)

This weekend we have a busy lineup. Tonight we are headed to Springfield, MA to see Anthony Bourdain (of “No Reservations” fame).



We love watching his show on the Travel Channel so we are hoping that his show will be interesting. I guess he is going to talk about his new book and then answer questions? I’m not sure what we paid money for, but I’m expecting adult language and funny stories. Hopefully CP will we able to think of a good question to ask him.

Tomorrow morning we will leave bright and early for NJ. My aunt and uncle live down there and have recovered my late grandmother’s couch for our new house. They are also having a cider party so we will have some fun making apple cider and then we get to take some home! :-)

I am excited to see my Aunt, Uncle and hopefully one of my cousins, but we are missing out on a lot of things here in CT this weekend. The Newcomer’s Club that we joined (same club that had Bunco on Weds night) is having the fall Kick-Off Party tomorrow night. CP and I would have been able to walk to the house because it is fairly close to ours. There will be other events though so I am not too bummed.

Also, we just found out that one of CP’s friends from his fraternity will be down in our town this weekend. It is such a small world story. The house two doors down from us has been nicknamed “the Party House” because they often have a bunch of people over in their backyard hanging out on the weekends. CP and I have joked that we need to make friends with them. While on a walk with Fuzzy Britches earlier this week we ran across some other neighbors farther down our street and they were able to place where we lived because of our proximity to the “Party House.” Turns out CP’s fraternity brother went to HIGH SCHOOL with the guy (he owns the Party House with his fiancé) and will be down partying with them this weekend. So we are missing our chance for our “in” to the Party House, but maybe the introduction will be made sometime in the future.

Do you guys have any exciting plans this weekend?




*By the way, yesterday was my 500th post! WOW.

First event

Last night I had my first event with our town’s Newcomers Club.

Turns out, Bunco was a great way to talk to many different people while still having a game to focus on. I wasn’t necessarily nervous to show up at some random person’s house and meet a bunch of ladies that were complete strangers, but I did think about what I was going to wear. I didn’t want to overdress for the event, but I also didn’t want to walk in looking like a shlub.

Thankfully there was wine so I grabbed a glass of white and started introducing myself. All 12 ladies were really nice and it seemed to be a mix of people that had been in the group last year (and were on the board) and people that were new. I talked to one woman about the free Fleet Feet Runs that happen every Wednesday night out of the store in the center of town. As long as I am cleared to run after my doctor appointment tomorrow (for heel pain in my right foot), I should see her there next week.

The women were all fairly close to me in age, with most of them married with kids. At one point a group of four that I was in discussed that they all had in vitro fertilization in order to have kids. Wow. That was quite a shocker- also sad that so many people these days are not able to conceive the natural way. During that conversation, I admitted that CP and I haven’t had any luck so far and the minute it came out of my mouth, I felt awful. I mean, CP and I have discussed how we want the fact that we are trying to be something only we know about (other than me telling you guys since he still doesn’t know about the blog). Was I trying to gain sympathy points with these women? Was I trying to open up to get to know these women better? I wouldn't consider myself an over-sharer, but I am more of an open book than CP. Whatever my reasons were, I feel guilty that I blabbed about it. Here’s hoping that one of the women doesn’t say something about it in front of CP if we are ever at an event together.

Other than the slip of my tongue, I had a fun night with strangers (and I won $30! Woo hoo!). There is a kick-off party on Saturday night that CP and I are not going to be able to make, but I hope to make another event soon. A woman on one of the committees was even trying to get me to join it to help plan events already!

So no crazy pants people so far. :-)

Big news

I'm back. A week of business travel/personal travel means that I am WAY behind in reading your blogs (still reading, just not really commenting until I get caught up). Hope you haven't missed me too much. :-)

Now on to our BIG NEWS!!

After CP's teasing email from last week, we have been having serious conversations about getting a puppy. We have talked to a bunch of breeders all down the East Coast and have been reading up on bringing a younger dog into the family. Fuzzy Britches is very used to having us all to herself, so it will be a bit of a shock for her when the puppy not only stays for a couple of nights, but forever.

In another way I am not too worried about FB. She is gentle with puppies when she meets them and is a fairly calm dog (until she is ready to play). She will be 7 years old in January which is considered an older Bernese Mtn Dog. She is still very playful and fun though (one of things we love about the breed- they stay goofy despite their age) and we want to make sure that she is still that way when we get a puppy. I could totally she her helping the puppy along too....in terms of helping us teach the puppy various life skills (where NOT to go to the bathroom being a big one).

As you guys know, we are not having the best luck in getting pregnant so this might be a perfect time to get a puppy into the house before a baby comes along. Or, if a baby never comes along, then we brought the puppy into our house at what we felt was a good time with FB.

There is a breeder located not too far from us, but her puppies are ready in 7 days and that is waaaaay too soon.

One of the two puppies available. The face alone makes me want to say that we are ready for a puppy NOW. :-)

We are going out of town and leaving FB at the kennel two more times before Thanksgiving. It wouldn't be fair to get a puppy and then leave it in a kennel when it is so young. Not only that, but we want to do more research in moving to a two-dog household. Getting a puppy means not taking a trip for a while, but we both kind of feel like it is now....or a long time from now.


There is a breeder down in DC that will have puppies in December and if we don't find another breeder that is scheduled to have puppies in October or November then we will probably go with her. We are thinking about getting a male Bernese this time as we have been reading that it is good to have opposite sex dogs. Because Bernese are kind of expensive it would be an anniversary gift AND Christmas gift for both of us rolled into the cutest puppy imaginable.


CP threw out the name "Uno" as in one aka our first anniversary. We have been trying to think of various other names for a puppy. I'm not sure where CP got this factoid from, but dogs respond best to a two-syllable name so something too short or too long wouldn't work. We were trying to think of anything that had to do with our wedding, the location of the wedding (White Mtns of NH), or our honeymoon (South Africa/Mozambique). It's difficult! That's why I think Uno is the best name we have been able to come up with so far.


Any suggestions on names? Or if you have two dogs, how much did things change when you brought another dog into the mix?

Send good thoughts....

Before I left for my whirlwind work trip (got back at 11pm last night) we had a very scary incident at the office. Tuesday I spent much of the day participating in an event away from the office. About 20 other coworkers joined me, including the head of the office (my boss) and a bunch of the managers. We were back in the office for maybe 30 minutes when I see someone running down the hallway screaming “CALL 911!!!”

I run into the hallway to find out what is going on and am told that an older coworker (K) has collapsed and might have had a heart attack. I burst into my boss’ office and interrupt her phone call to tell her about the possible heart attack. She gets off the phone and rushes over.

Another coworker grabbed the defibrillator and my boss and K’s manager turn it on. Meanwhile I get a bit more of the story. K didn’t feel well Monday so she left work a little early. She also wasn’t feeling well on Tuesday, but was going to stick out the day. K has already had two heart attacks at the office, so that is what we assumed had happened. One coworker talked to her before she collapsed and said that she seemed fine. She walked away for a few minutes, then came back and saw K on the floor. That’s when she yelled for someone to call 911.

Because K had a pulse the defibrillator didn’t have to be used. The paramedics came (slowly I might add. They took their sweet a** time getting out of the ambulance and getting up into the office) and checked K out. She was slurring her speech a bit and when they tried to have her hold her arms up, her right arm immediately fell down. K was loaded onto a stretcher and taken to the hospital.

Everyone gathered at the office with worried looks on their faces. We were all thinking stroke.

Sidenote: if anything ever happens to me at work, I hope my boss is there. She was very good at trying to calm K down, she was ready to use the defibrillator if needed and in general projected a strong presence without freaking out.

K’s manager and my boss went to the hospital to see if they could see her. We haven’t had very many updates, just that she has recently been moved from ICU to a room and has seen little improvement.

The whole thing was just so scary. Had it happened a few minutes later some people would have been gone for the day- including her cube mates which means who knows when someone would have found her on the floor. She could have been driving. With all of the older people here at work, this type of stuff could happen at any minute.

Sorry to be such a downer at the end of the week, but once again I am reminded that it is important to keep up with loved ones as we have no idea what could happen in an instant.