Swimming....

So, stooopid MS interrupted my swim for the first time! I should be excited that this is the first time in so many swims... But, on my last round of laps my right foot seized up to my knee. Well, that's a little bit of an exaggeration, since it just bent up to my ankle...

I hate spasticity - really, that's my biggest bitch... or, more aptly, it's the part of my MS that makes me it's biggest bitch! When my legs or arms start going - I'm screwed!!! That damn lesion on my C5....

But, I did still have a good swim since it happened in the last 2-3 minutes of my swim. So, I didn't lose that much. Course, I was then royally creeped out when the creepy old man sitting in the hot tub offered to rub my foot - TWICE!

So, I had already spent about 2-3 minutes in the pool trying to rub out the spasm but it had moved to my calf. Now, not only am I pissed about my foot I get to waddle to the hot tub to sink my foot (and only my foot!) in there - very obvious that I was cramped up. He's across the spa from me and asks if I'm okay - no problems there... I looked horrible with my waddle over the hot tub.

BUT, BUTTTTTT, BUTTTTTTT - would you offer to rub a complete stranger's foot?? In the hot tub of the gym??? EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW I was still polite and my inner beauch did not come out. I declined and then he was okay with the chit-chat...

Until, yup - you guessed it!!!! By this time he's moved to my side of the hot tub and he offers again, and just so I know he's serious - he's leaned in and scooted closer. Okay, if I could have run away at that point I would have - but my foot's still turned into my ankle and not wanting to give it up. Again - no bitch, I think because my foot's still got too much of my attention but I say it a little bit more forcefully and I think he's got the hint...

Luckily, within a few more minutes my foot released enough to escape to the women's locker room... Sigh - MS is enough to deal with... why did I have to deal with creepy old guy at gym, too????

Music good for MS?

Have you gotten your Momentum magazine yet? I did and it was so nice to hear... well, you know what I mean. (Warning to shiny thing: anybody know the term for the symptom of when you hear words? I actually tried to google it and it was pretty funny some of the non-related issues that came up...)

The article was "CAM: Music and the brain may be therapeutic duet" and here it is. Anyways, the issue talks about how music might actually help with brain function. The music stimulates parts of our brains simultaneously and gets a lot of neurons and synapses excited and they start dancing along to the music... Then, that's a good thing because if there's more than one area going at the time...

Keeps our brains good when they need it. We know that our brain needs regular activity to keep it young and healthy. I've been trying to be good and play my brain age game on the DS. That or soduku or scrabble or anything that makes me think (despite trying to refuse to do that away from work).

I have to say that I really liked reading that article because it can justify my music addiction. Yes, I will admit I have a problem. Hey, my name is Holly and I am a music addict. Now, I'm not one of those addicts that'll just jam on anything. No, I have my preferences. My true temptation is not THE Temptations - it's THE Judds - and all those other artists with a twang thang... My faves are Reba, Trisha, Martina, Terri, Wynonna, Gary, Trace, Kenny, those Rascalls, and really I need to stop now because I haven't even gotten to Pat, Bleu, Garth, Hank, Johnny, Patsy, Conway, or so many others... Although, I tend to agree that I have to get to know you a while before I let you get anywhere near my Willie!!!

Okay - deep breath - I'm getting really excited typing over here. Cuz, I don't think you're feeling just how deep my addiction goes. I have an Ipod that I just recently got because my old one, one of the early generation 20GB ones, was full. Yes, you read that right - FULL! I now have the 120GB so that should last me a while. If you have joined that evil, evil, cult known as an Itunes user, you know that they allow you to keep a special tab of those songs that fall under "purchased" - as opposed to some of my other playlists like "Wanna Listen", "Paisley", and TC.

And that "purchased" isle has caused some trouble with me. Again, I have to admit - I have a problem. I know admittance to the problem is half the battle. The other half the battle - well, I said and I had a freakin' problem, didn't I? I will not name the number of songs on my Ipod and I will for sure as hell not tell you how many of those fall under the purchased album. I can tell you, to be fair about my problem and battle with this addiction, that I still have about 200 cd's still to add to my collection... Now, this is old CD's that I've had for a long time and probably about 30 from the merging of my own and my other half's collection...

But, thanks to the latest issue of Momentum magazine, I realize I no longer have a problem. I have a treatment!!! Yes, folks.... I now own the equivalent of a brain TENS unit!!!!!! I just put those electrodes (earbuds) into my ear and select my playlist (how about Just Because) and make sure the volume isn't at 13 year-old level and BOOM! I've got instant brain therapy!! I wonder if all my purchases can be written off as medical expenses now? Seriously, any MS CPA's out there that'll help me out with this one?!??!!

I've got a new toy!!!...

And it's sooooo awesome!! I got a new stove!! It's soooo pretty!!! It's a gas range with 5 burners - with the 5th center burner that's long. I'm soooo happy!!!

We had friends over last night and grilled steaks and I baked beer bread and peach cobbler and they both turned out wonderful!! And, that's using verbal feedback from the people who ate it!! LOL I also used the top burners to whip up some mashed potatoes and saute'd bell peppers. YUMMERS!

Now, the reason we (well, need to be honest - I) decided to finally break down and buy the new stove was because the old one was finally breaking down! We were having to use a lighter to light the burners because the igniters built in were no longer working. That's not a deal-breaker... Annoying but completely able to work with it. But when it started to mess with my brownie-making capabilities because the heating was so uneven and not maintaining temperature - NU UH!!

Two weeks ago the other half put up a ceiling fan in the kitchen for me to reduce heat. Well, turned out we might not have needed that - seems our old stove was unable to maintain heat because it was letting most of it out!!! We all know how MS and heat love each other - so anything requiring me to be over/next to the stove for a little while was not a good combo. The new stove keeps all the heat where it belongs - in the stove!

My honey kept laughing at me because I just kept making yippee noises as I went about making my bread and desserts. Hey, it's the little things in life - I love my new stove!!

We've had a good weekend. Hung out with the neighbors quite a bit. One of the best silver linings from Hurricane Ike was the new friends we've made in all of our neighbors. Seriously, we would wave and exchange polite conversation with everyone in the cul de sac. But, now - beers and sarcasm and fun!! We all ended up in chairs in one our neighbor's front yards with all the kiddos running around and laughing and talking. Coversation is not a problem! And, last night we had people from all but 1 of the houses (8 total) sitting in J's front yard. And, as much as we'd love to have the complete circle - no one's missing that one house... I'm sure they're nice people but they have not tried to get to know people at all - even during and after the hurricane when we were all sharing extension cords and ice and grills and propane and feeding everyone - they never came outside!!!!

We're in a major drought down here in SE Texas. We're like 7-8 inches below where we normally are for the year in rainfall. It really bites!! We've all just accepted the brown spots in the yard - we can only water so much!! And, even thought August in Texas is normally hot as hell - it's even more than normal! I have been indoors even more than normal because of the heat. I've only worn my cooling vest once - just because I have not been going outside.

And, you'd think without any rain we'd have less mosquitos. True - to an extent. Course, I was enjoying my cold Blue Moon(s) and hardly noticed the damn nuissances biting me until the next day. Now - my legs and feet are covered. How the hell did they get underneath my foot? I actually have a bite on the underside of my arch on my right foot??!?!?! I never knew how much my tizanidine would help my legs deal with too many mosquito bites!! AHAHHAHAH