No News is Good News?

Still no news on the results of my Lulabelle biopsy. I'm going to call this afternoon after I get back from dim sum. Mmmmmm, dim sum!

This week has been killer in the derby practice department. The coach was having us do drills of falling flat on our faces and then getting up and skating as fast as we could. My arms and legs are about ready to fall off from scrambling around on the ground like an upended crab. Apparently I was getting weak!

I've been having problems sleeping lately. I have a hard time getting to sleep and then feel like I'm hung over the next morning. I hate it when that happens since I've been trying to cut down on both alcohol and caffeine consumption.


Gosh, I really don't have much to say. I'm almost finished with two new toilet seats. Revisions on Chicken Little is on hold for me until February. I need another job as a result. Crap.

Sometimes I just want to run away:

Freaky!

Did everyone see this pic of the mutant one-eyed cat with no nose? Apparently the poor thing died the day after it was born, according to Yahoo! news. Cute in a gruesome way nontheless.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

Yesterday was eventful for me.

I went to get my lump, Lulabelle, checked out. I went to the UCLA Medical Plaza in Westwood, and was surprised when I managed to actually get where I needed to go with a minimum of hassle and screaming on my part due to traffic, etc.

I meet with the doctor and she checks out Lulabelle. She thinks Lulabelle isn't on my lymph node, but could be a salivary gland gone awry. She also says that I need a biopsy so that they get an idea of what Lulabelle is; cancer is the worst case scenario and since I used to smoke, it's a possibility. I'm not really freaked out by any of this, as it's not shocking news to me.

So they move me into a different examing room and two very nice pathologists, Dr. R and Dr. M, come in, sit me down, and explain to me that they're going to be doing a needle aspiration three times on Lulabelle. There could be discomfort, so they're going to give me a shot to numb the area, as well as spraying topical numbing stuff on the skin. Good idea, I say. Dr. M gives me the numbing stuff, and when that sets up, Dr. R goes in for the first sample. I feel discomfort, but no real pain. Hey, this isn't so bad, I think to myself. Dr. M goes in for sample number two.

That's when things get ugly. Dr. M goes deep with the gathering needle, and manages to hit a nerve in my jaw. Not once, but several times. The pain is bad; achey and sharp at the same time, but there's a special electricity to the pain that adds an extra component of true discomfort and I start squirming around in the chair. "You're doing good." muses Dr. M and keeps digging around behind Lulabelle. He pulls out the needle with hardly a decent-sized sample and starts squirting it onto several slides. I sit with my line of vision looking towards one corner of the room. I notice a weird whirlwind effect of what looks to be uncooked wild rice swirling in around my peripheral vision. I mutter, "I'm getting really light-headed." and WHUMP! I pass out in the chair.

I'm not one for passing out. The only other time I've done it was, go figure, the last time I got a biopsy, which was about 15 years ago. When that happened the docs had smelling salts on hand to snap me back. This time they didn't have that, so surreality time came in.

I remember a loud rumbling, like machinery running. I felt like I was being bent backwards with my feet being pulled down while my midsection was pulled up. There was some weird tugging at my neck in the Lulabelle area, as if I were plugged into an electrical outlet without the electricity. Over and over again my mind screamed, "Where am I? Where am I? WHERE AM I?"

Next thing I knew, I came to when Dr. M put a damp paper towel on my forehead and asks, "Are you OK?" Uhhhhhhhhhh, I think so, I shakily reply. I notice that they don't have any more needles sitting out, so I asked if they were done with the sample-taking. For the moment, Dr. M replies. They have to see if they got decent-sized samples to run the tests with, and they may need to take additional samples to make sure they're good to go. Ugh. They get me a cup of water and I sip away as I recover. I notice that I'm all sweaty, shaky, and the chair I'm sitting in has been reclined back a bit. Hmmmm.

As I came to, I figured out that the loud machinery noise I heard when passed out was the pathologists reclining the chair that I was in so that I don't slump to the floor. They then took the last sample while I was still passed out, hence my feeling that I was plugged into an outlet or something. I haven't drawn the vivid image I have of what my body looked/felt like; I'll do it soon.

I'm left alone while they check out the samples they've drawn. I didn't know if I could go through another biopsy if they didn't get what they needed. After a nerve-racking five minutes Dr. R and Dr. M came back to tell me that they got everything and that I'm good to go. YESSSSS! I sit for a few more minutes and then weakly walk out into the gathering darkness of outside and go home.

So what do I do after that? Most people would take it easy for the rest of the day. Not me. I'm an idiot, so I go to derby practice two hours later. I did alright, except I had to stop a few times when I got dizzy and light-headed. I had the best excuse of the night when I told the biopsy story. I should find out by the end of the week what the test results are.

Here's a close-up of Lulabelle:

Here's a double-whammy of doodling stupidity of me and my lump:


I keep drawing the lump on the wrong side; it's actually on the left side of my neck, as in the upper doodle of the double-whammy of ugliness.

Aaaaand another doodle of me, now that I'm fatter than I should be due to alllll the eating I did in December:


Oh yeah, I caught the second episode of Rollergirls...DAYUM! So much better than the first...I wonder why they didn't start the series off with this one as opposed to last week's. More skating, more focus on the sport, more about the teams...really great to watch!

What's up in the Attic?

This morning I finally got through the mind-numbing phone system at UCLA Medical Plaza and got myself an appointment to see a doctor about Lulabelle the lump. Breathe huge sigh of relief here. The maiming spree is postponed for now.

Yesterday I heard distinct scratching and scurrying noises coming from the attic. Critter noises. What type of critter? By the way they were scratching and scurrying, it sounds like squirrels. There's something cute about the noises they're making. The husband and I discussed what to do. Call an exterminator? Crawl up there ourselves to make sure what's living up there? Wait, not "ourselves"...me. I would have to crawl up there, since the husband won't. Hmmm.

We decided to not call an exterminator right away. I might still crawl up there to see what critters made themselves a home up there. Hopefully they're not vicious and won't take a flying leap at my face. If they're squirrels I wouldn't be too creeped out by them. If they're rats, all sorts of freak-out will happen. I don't want to kill whatever's up there, though. Live traps or something would be much preferable to deal with the new tenants. Though I could catch 'em and use 'em for kitchen utensils:

I hate doctors

Last week I went to my primary care physician to have her look at my fuxxed up knee. I also had her take a gander at a weird lump-thingee that's on my neck, just under my jaw. She said I need to get a biopsy of that sucker ASAP. The specialist she recommends doesn't take insurance. Dammit. So I go to my health insurance website and get a list of some specialists that supposedly take my insurance, fax the list to my doctor, and she called me back with a couple of recommendations.

First choice is a guy at UCLA Medical plaza in Westwood. I've called about four times now and haven't been able to get through. First time I called was last week; the office was closed for the holiday season. I call around 12:30pm today; they're closed for lunch. I call at 3pm today; I manoever through their automated answering system and end up getting disconnected as the phone actually rings to a real person. I call at 3:10pm and get a recording saying that they can't answer the phone right now because I'm calling during a peak hour. WHAT THE FUXX?!?!?!?!??!?!?!

Edit: I just called them yet again. Got through the automated system, the phone rang. And rang. And rang. And rang. Fuxxing UCLA BASTARDS.

Second choice is an extremely old doctor in Santa Monica who the husband went to eight years ago when the husband was involved in a minor accident where he hit the back of a Volvo with his motorcycle and cut his nose open at the start of a July 4 weekend. His regular doctor was out of town, and he tried getting a hold of several other specialists and was S.O.L. due to the holiday weekend. Eventually the husband found this doctor who is seriously ancient, but he patched the husband up pretty good. I call and find out the person who takes appointments isn't there on Wednesdays. ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I wasn't broke, I'd just go to the specialist that my doctor recommends. I seriously can't afford it, and my frustration level with trying to get this weird lumpy-thing taken care of is making me want to strangle people.

So unless you know of a good ear, nose and throat specialist on the Westside who isn't a fuxxing pain to get in contact with, you might want to stay away from me. I'm as angry as this baby:

Rain, rain, and more rain...

For the first time in about seven years, we didn't go on a New Year's Day motorcycle ride. Kinda a bummer, except that the rain would've made it a whole lotta non-fun. So we went to the husband's parents' house and ate a ridiculous amount of latkes for Hannukkah instead. Mmmmm, latkes!

I usually don't do New Year's resolutions. This year I kinda resolve to lose the weight I've gained in the past month. 7 pounds...ugh! I see a steady diet of Boca burgers in my immediate future.

Tonight is the Rollergirls show premiere. The reviews have been very mixed, but I'm looking forward to it.

Now I'm going to watch the rain. I love watching rain...it makes me envision that I'm in a different place than LA.

Back in the Grind

After pretending to be domestic and into the holidays over the weekend, things are going back to normal. The leftovers that have been weighing me down literally are slowly being eaten up, thank gawd. The house is somewhat clean. The cats are kinda behaved. The husband is still working on his rigging fun.

I'm still slaving away on work stuff. Down to the last thirty pages of revisions. Ugh. A dance sequence. Double ugh. It'll get done soon enough, though.

Tomorrow I'm paying a visit to the doctor about my hurt knee. The damn thing is still way swollen, so it looks like my right leg is made out of bratwurst or something. The pain is easing up...must be that lack of falling for the past week I've been doing. One of my teamates suggested getting acupuncture, which is one amongst many things I want to ask about in getting back to normal. Others include asking if taking extra vitamin C will really help, or if the orange juice industry is just trying to get more sweet moolah out of me.

Here are the switchplates I painted for my bathroom. The photo quality is sketchy and doesn't show the full glory of the glow-in-the-dark aspects of the plates, but what the hell. It's still fun:

Merry Happy Hollerdaze

Has anyone noticed the anger in some people this holiday season about saying "Merry Christmas"? One rant I caught on a motorcycle board essentially said, "I don't care how un-PC it is, I say 'Merry Christmas' instead of 'Happy Holidays' and I don't care who I offend with it!"

Um, doesn't that kinda go against wishing well for someone if you offend them and you don't care that you knowingly offend them? And why is it "PC" to include all the freakin' holidays that happen this time of year...isn't it just more accurate?

My take on "Merry Christmas" vs. "Happy Holidays" is different. I'm an atheistic holiday opportunist. So is my husband. We do stuff on Christmas with my family, and we do stuff for Hannukkah with his family. We know a pagan or two, so Solstice is on our radar. That's way more fun and merriment than just Christmas alone. Work in enough cultures, and all of December is a holiday, and who wouldn't enjoy a month of fun? We're all about the fun. We're not going to be exclusionary by just saying "Merry Christmas"...the more the merrier on this one.

So...Happy holidays!


Oh, this is a card from a couple of years ago.

Ouch

I did it again last night.

Nope, I didn't throttle a BMW driver, I fell on my knee at roller derby practice.

Again.

Now the back of my knee is swollen and painful. I don't know if it's better than having my kneecap swollen and painful, but the end result is that my mobility ain't whut it used ta be. I guess it's a good thing that because of the holidays we won't be having practice for the next two weeks, so my knee might get better. Here's hoping, at any rate.

What cheezes me off about it is that it happened during an exercise where someone was supposed to stay with someone else to keep that someone else from doing her job in the pack. Welp, that someone didn't stay on the someone else, so the someone else nailed me hard when I concentrating on a third person that I was supposed to prevent from being effective with her job. Make sense? Thank gawd for ice packs and medicinal margaritas.


We're waiting for the plumber to come by. Our kitchen sink has been filling up with water from the washing machine when it drains. I think that's indicative of a larger problem. The husband tried the Liquid Plumr route but it didn't work. He wanted to try it again, but I insisted that he call the plumber and have 'em do it right. Last thing we need is having the toilets start backing up on us on Xmas day or something! Besides, I have a buttload of laundry to do. The plumber's already an hour late. Bastard. I have laundry to do, dammit!

Not Quite There Yet...

I've been fighting this fuxxing cold thing valiantly, but it's still hanging in there. That didn't stop me from leaving the house last night, however.

We went to the Valley to visit some family friends who put on a helluva good party spread at their place. We ate ourselves stoopid for about an hour and then headed on down to Hollyweird.

Every year Suzy Snakeyes gets a group of friends and some family together for a trip to the Rainbow on the Sunset Strip. The purpose is to go up to the small dance area they have and get a gander at the people there who haven't figured out that the '80's are OVER. It's around $15 to get in when all said and done, but thank gawd they hand out drink tickets along the way, so that the lack of K-Y doesn't sting so bad. Some of this year's winning crop of humanity include:

People like, Pretty Boy in White Leather Who Had Some Plastic Surgery Done to His Face So That He Has A Cute Girl Nose.

And, Vinyl-Clad Girl With Hair So Tall She Almost Gets Knocked Over Going Through Doorways.

Or, Drunk Frat Boys with Drunk Dates Who Hump Each Other on the dance floor.

The ever-charming, Black Dude Dressed Like A Pimp Who Came In with a Hot Blonde Chick.

Amusing, Bald White Dude Who Picks Up on the Hot Blonde Chick and Pretends He's the Bass Player from Tool Out on the Dance Floor.

Or, Motorcycle Dudes Who Park on the Sidewalk and Wear Sunglasses even though its Pitch Black.

The fun, I'm Not Sure if That's a Guy or a Girl, but They Sure Do Look Like Nikki Sixx!

Then of course there's, Is That a Girl or a Guy in That Cowboy Hat?

Don't forget, Ohmigawd is that a Chubby Mother/Daughter Duo Or Are They Sisters?

My personal favorite was, I Look Like I'm a Motley Crue Roadie and I'm Going to Try to Pick Up on You now that They Announced Last Call.

Oh, and we saw Dave Navarro out front. Seriously. Husband didn't recognize him, but I did. Of course nothing witty came to mind, or else I would've said something to him. Shyeah, right!

But the best of the Best was Albert Einstein. Old Dude who looked like Albert Freakin' Einstein except that this guy's hair wasn't as white. Hi-larious!

I hadn't been to the Rainbow since the Derby Dolls got kicked out of the place at closing with the Datsuns in tow. I didn't get kicked out this time, but it sure was fun nontheless. I hope to go again next year.

You Know...

...what sucks more than having a cold?

Having a cold when you're on your period. Ugh!

Heheheheheheh, did the TMI light just go off or what?! Sorry kids, it's been one of those weeks. I have a rough board due on Monday and hollerday shopping also needing to be done by Monday. Being sick and working just makes me wanna hide under a moist rock until New Year's.

Here's the latest toilet seat that I've been working on. Inspired by Derby Doll shenanigans. Still needs clearcoating:



Click on any of the images to see 'em bigger and stuff.

Ugggghhhhhh

It finally happened.

I caught the cold that everyone in LA has been coughing up all around me for the past two weeks. I fought it as hard and as valiantly as I could, but despite the daily zinc supplements and today's mega-dosing on vitamin C and echinacea, I still feel like crap. It's not the post-nasal drip that's really getting to me, it's the almost constant light-headedness and chills that really makes me miserable. It didn't help that I had to get up early today to go back to Santee Alley to cover my ass on team holiday gifts because I somehow managed to lose one last week at practice. Duh!

Here's a weird, gross, yet fun site I ran across yesterday. I love the internet.

Anyway, here's a doodle that has nothing to do with my current mood. Enjoy:

Fatso!

A fat cat for a fat post:




The one thing I hate about throwing parties is the leftover food afterwards. I've been busily eating the very fattening leftovers in our house for the past two weeks and I've gained a ridiculous amount of weight. I've ripped my skatin' pants and now my thighs rub together. Some of this is a result of my being broke so we gotta eat what's around the house. But truly, I think most of it is just procrastinating on work. Actually, I'm fairly on-schedule so far this week, but sometimes I just want to run screaming from the art table.

Today I'm trying to be somewhat behaved. I bought spinach for salad useage. I hate cooked spinach, but the raw stuff is pretty damned tasty. Add some carne asada that we scored over the weekend and I'll be a happy camper...albeit a going-through-carbohydrate-withdrawal one.

Whatever you do, don't give me cookies. They're of the devil.

Annoyed

I've spent the past few days being annoyed. Yes, not exactly a newsflash, is it.

First annoyance: whatever happened to RSVP'ing for events such as parties and whatnot? Why do people refuse to do this anymore? Do they not have a freakin' clue how much of a pain in the tuchus it is to plan something where the planner has no idea how many people are going to show up?! Even a, "I'll try to be there but don't hold your breath" is better than nothing.

Second annoyance: loud bars. What's the point of going to a place to meet people when it's too damn dark and loud to meet people? Some would say that I'm getting old if that's how I think. Guess what? Even when I was young I didn't like having to scream into someone's ear just to make small talk. Last night one of the derby girls had a birthday "party" at the Bigfoot Lodge in Los Feliz. Nice bar...if you don't want to hold a conversation. We didn't go to that, but instead went to a house-warming/holiday party nearby. That was fun! Not so loud, free hooch, good munchies, and some amazing taxidermy. My gawd, we even talked to people! Without having to scream at them! A-mazing! Oh, and the hostess was pleasantly surprised to see me, since I RSVP'd with, "I'll try to make it but don't hold your breath".

Third annoyance: Camp Ronald McDonald. Yesterday I donated my time and drawing hand to the annual Camp Ronald McDonald holiday party that Warner Bros throws every year. They have a bunch of animation artists come in to draw cartoons for the kids every year. Sometimes it's fun, but sometimes it's a nightmare. The nightmare years are when it's not organized so that the kids each get one ticket for one drawing from us. When they get just one ticket, then every kid gets their one drawing when they hand over the ticket to the artist and everything's good. When it's a free-for-all like it was this year, a small amount of kids take up the artists' time by going down the line from artist to artist getting drawings galore. Little opportunistic bastards...it takes the good mood of doing something nice and wanting to kick them square in the pants; I don't care what their disability is.

Fourth annoyance: just because I wear the occasional Aeroflot shirt doesn't make me Russian in real life. I got the weirdest comments at the Animation Guild when I wore said shirt on Friday night. Don't ask me how to say "Bon Jour" in Russian, 'cos I sure as hell don't know.

Fifth annoyance: I haven't yet figured out a way to make my work do itself so that I can get back to the goofing off that I was born to do. Frickin' day job!

Makes me wanna go hide in a corner until spring.

Get Down and Derby

Last night turned out to be more fun than I anticipated.

The Lonestar Rollergirls in Austin, TX are about to become celebrities due to the A&E series, Rollergirls that's going to premiere January 2. I'm definitely going to catch the show. Not only is it about skating, but I know those girls. Anyway, they're doing a promotional tour of the US with the Donnas and their first stop was here in LA last night. I got to re-meet, greet, and harass Sister Mary Jane, Punky Bruiser, Cha Cha, Chola, La Muerta and Lux. A few of them got the humorous and dubious pleasure of meeting Rodney Bingemheimer("The Mayor of Sunset Strip")and having him invite them over to his place. Some of the Derby Dolls were cornered by him as well and he invited them to his birthday party next week at Canter's. I think the entire league needs to go and crash it! Btw, he's tiny! If he came up to my shoulder it'd only be because he was wearing shoes with lifts.

So after the Donnas show we all head over to the Derby Dolls Holiday Party fundraiser. I didn't want to go to that, and I ended up spending about 20 minutes hanging out outside of the place before going in to see how crowded it was. It was plenty crowded, and kinda annoying. I kept getting the stinkeye from some girl there who obviously doesn't know any of the Derby Dolls or else she would've been a lot less stinky-eyed, 'cos you never know who you're gonna piss off by doing that. Jeezus. The Lonestar girls came by and everyone hung out for awhile. We all ended up back outside and were treated to a "show" by a homeless bum carrying a guitar who had a voice so rough he made Tom Waits sound like Sinatra. Amusing. Some other dweebs did the typical "How tough are you?" line of talk to some of us. NOT a good idea, kids. Some of us will hurt you.

Anyway, this weekend is another weekend full o' parties. Tonight is the Animation Guild party as well as the last night that the Lonestar girls will be in town. Tomorrow there's several events going on. Crap, this "day job" thing is really cramping my style on all that.

whatever

Yesterday was platelets-giving day. I watched Million Dollar Baby while my blood was pumped out of one arm, harvested for platelets in a big ol' machine next to me, and put back in the other arm. The movie got me nice and depressed. However, the Red Cross has a new technique to keep losers like me giving blood and stuff. They tell you the number of lives your donations have affected. Supposedly my blood has helped save 51 lives. Huh.

Well, Happy Birthday to Me!

Today I'm another year older, another year closer to death. Party on, Wayne.

My new favorite band is called Death From Above 1979. They're cool and I want to buy all their albums or whatever.

It's gonna be platelets time in about two hours. Let's see if I make the blood-iron count.

Short, choppy sentences seem to be the mode of day. Cool.

Movin' and Groovin'

Saturday I had a birthday party for myself. It was fun, even though not as many Derby Dolls attended as I'd expected. Apparently a bunch of them are allergic to the Westside. Whatever! I had a good mix of people show up and I don't think I embarrassed myself too much. I think. Hmmm.

Anyway, one of the many cool things I got for my birthday was a mix CD from Thora. She's infamous for making some kickass mix CD's. Not a DJ Danger Mouse-type mix, just a compilation of artists that one wouldn't necessarily think of compiling together. It was really cool to be listening to the Datsuns for a couple of songs(Thora's got stuff from them that I don't have...I'm jealous!), then have it follow up with the BeeGees. Yes, the BeeGees. Saturday Night Live, baby. A little Babes in Toyland after that, and of course you gotta have Billy Idol's Flesh for Fantasy in there, too.

I haven't gotten through the whole CD yet, but the song that's on there now is the Circle Jerks' song from Repo Man...the lounge version of When the Sh!t Hits the Fan. Totally cool.





Today is more Chicken Little research day. I gotta finish planning out what I'm going to be boarding today, as well. Oh yeah, and I have derby practice. Being busy is good.

Marbled

This morning I picked up my freelance assignment for the next three weeks. Shouldn't be too bad to do, and I get the added bonus of going to see Chicken Little again and having Disney pick up the tab. There's a lot of character stuff going on in my section, and I love that type of work. Score! The pay isn't fantastic, but these gigs for pilots never seem to pay well. At least I get union hours so that my health insurance hopefully won't get cancelled.

The big rain storm that was supposed to hit today really fizzled out. Pissed me off, as I would've liked to have ridden the motorsickle to Burbank when I picked up my work today. Freakin' weather! This isn't the midwest, it's supposed to be somewhat predictable out here! Harrumph!

Below is what my stomach is feeling like after eating the hamburger that I had for lunch today:


We went to "Howard's Famous Bacon & Avocado Burgers" after doing some running around in the car. I've been intrigued with Howard's cool retro sign for years now, and we were finally drawn in. I ordered a bacon-cheeseburger with chili-cheese fries, and the husband had an extra-huge cheeseburger.

I thought it was OK. I've had worse, but I've also had better. The husband felt the same. Now we know that Fatburger is probably a better deal. Nontheless, today's meal had better help with my blood iron situation. That's today's food review...thank you, come again!

Look at Me! Look at Me!

Thank gawd for friends who know how to do screen grabs:




My friend Kenny sent these along to me today. I look happy in that second pic. Toooooo funny! CSI also dubbed in a different voice over me. Not only am I not SAG, but apparently the on-location sound turned out horribly due to echoes.

So I'm told.

I liked the other murder mystery in last night's episode more than the roller derby one.

Oh, and I'm gonna be employed for a short while starting tomorrow! Woohoo! There may be Xmas for me after all!

And one more pimpage...the soon-to-have-more-stuff-on-it webpage for the flick I worked on in Dallas.