Well. I’ll try to land somewhere between those two extremes. This is about what I did all of 2009, but with one difference from other recap blogs. See, I had a goal for 2009, and I definitely met it. It started around December 2008 when I was making my new year’s resolutions and thinking about what I had accomplised that year: nothing. I went to work, came home, ate and went to bed. I didn’t much go out, or read, or really do anything.

boooring.

So, in with 2009, a year in which I set a different goal for every month. And met it. The new adventures of couch potato courtney. Here we go:

January: Bungee Jumping. yep. It’s pretty awesome. No, your retnas won’t detach. I don’t recommend searching YouTube beforehand for “bungee accidents.”

February: Trip to Paris. I couldn’t convince anyone to go with me on such short notice, so I spent a lot of time making new friends in Paris, mostly people staying at the hostel. I also shared a room with a group of four students from Colorado who had, like, the BEST time faking british accents and trying to uncork wine with wire hangers. They didn’t know that 18 is a legal drinking age in Europe.

March: Half-marathon completed. Made The Great Race of Agoura my bitch. Kidding! It was super fun and excellent training for my May goal.

April: Started a website that’s more of an online portfolio: http://www.courtneypaigewrites.com/.

May: Finished the 2009 Los Angeles Marathon. It was a new course with lots of entertainment along the way, which seems appropriate in LA. The race started with thousands of runners singing “We looove LA.” I got to run (most of) the race with my Team in Training buddies. Some of them are running again this year, fundraining and everything. Go team!

June: Horseback riding in the canyon. I think it was runyon canyon? horses!

July: Camping. I tried to make this an all out camping and kayaking on Catalina Island trip, but couldn’t get the group together. But 4th of July camping was loads of fun, especially with two freaking adorable dogs along for the ride. Side note: I want to adopt a dog so bad!

August: It’s my birthday and Sara came out to visit. On an 11pm-on-a-thursday-night drunken whim-and with the help of an iphone-we booked a room in Vegas for the next day. So when our alarm went off at 7am that morning, we were more than confused, we were also hungover and it took a few minutes for us to remember that we were supposed to head to Vegas. Which we did. We got there around noon and went straight to the pool. Then from the pool to getting ready. From getting ready to five different clubs. And from five clubs in one limo. We still don’t know whose limo it was. So impromptu trip to Vegas became my August goal. So amazing that Sara and I are planning for 2010.

September: Unlilateral Reduction Mammaplasty. Or, breast reduction. Am now categorized as average. Woo! And, no more back problems.

October: Promotion! Am now the Senior Associate Editor. Also, another impromptu trip, this time to the San Diego Zoo. Pandas are so cute.

November: This, actually, I promised I wouldn’t talk about. That’s how cool I am. Ah-haha.

December: Again, not going to write about it, but send me an email and ill send you pictures. Also, I got up the nerve to go back to Tulsa after a year of being gone, which requires more balls than you might think after fully humiliating yourself at last year’s christmas charade.

Some of these activites might seem small beans, but the point was to actually do something with my life, even if it was just driving a couple of hours to be the women who stare at pandas. Goals are important, even if they only serve to get you off the couch for an afternoon. I have goals for this year, but I won’t bore you with the details.

Is this the look you’re going for, Heidi? Because Barbie looks totally fab for being over 50 – but she is made of plastic, you know.

For a gal who turned 51 today, March 9, Barbie doesn’t look a day over 21! But was her remarkably well-preserved façade the inspiration for Heidi Montag’s multiple plastic surgeries?

The Hills starlet, 23, who just mocked her new look in a Funny Or Die video, had breast augmentation, collagen lip injections and rhinoplasty in September 2007, and then had an additional TEN surgeries on Nov. 20, 2009, which included Botox, a chin reduction and buttock augmentation.

But after all that work – who do you think looks better?

Get More on ‘The Hills:’

1. Heidi Montag’s In SO Much Pain From Her 10 Plastic Surgeries! She Can’t Even Sleep, She Tweets!
2. Spencer Pratt on Heidi Montag’s Plastic Surgery Overkill: ‘It Was the Worst Experience of My Life’
3. Who Looks Faker: Heidi Montag Or J-WOWW?
4. Doc Agrees with Bonnie! There’s Something ‘Very Psychologically Wrong’ with Heidi Montag!
5. Heidi Montag, You Are Insane! You Want Size ‘H’ Boobs … For ‘Heidi?’ That Is Just Nuts!!

Would you maybe even be willing to host me, Tina and a friend of ours for a week?   (assuming it wouldn't be a burden on you).

As you might already know, I'm having top surgery in Southern FL in February with Dr. Garramone (Sunrise, FL/ Pembroke Pines, FL).   It's peak vacation season down there, so rental apartments this time of year are pretty steep. I would be willing to stay up to an hour away from Ft. Lauderdale especially if it meant that we'd be staying with/near LGBT or affirming blogger folks.

Please email me directly with any idea that you might have or suggestion that might help. 

Thanks everyone.

webmasterjess at gmail dot com

It was what happened next that impressed me the most.  I was looking up at the doctors (because keep in mind in a 20 minute span by breast had been pierced with needles and now injected with radioactive material so looking down was the LAST place I wanted to look.) when suddenly I see a horrified look on one of the doctor’s faces as she points and steps back saying “there’s a drop of the substance on her skin”.  The other doctor and the meek technician simultaneously stepped back as well.  Then the tech got a swab and gingerly dabbed off the drop.  Calamity averted? Let’s take stock…three professionals had just shown visible concern about a drop of this stuff on my skin and yet those same three professionals had just injected this stuff INTO my BLOOD STREAM.

The whole thing was topped off with a card that I was asked to carry for a week saying I may trip off airport detectors and police scanners due to my “high radioactivity level”.

Honestly…is this modern medicine or are we only a few steps away from bloodletting?

Also, my friend, Abby has been in the hospital this past week and just got home yesterday. I’m so happy that her surgery went well and  that she’s recovering wonderfully. I love you, my little Abby!

~CC

Much love,

Alana

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For my final paper, I was to do a  Sociological Critique on something a sociologist might study, so I choose subdermal implants, got a 17/20, good for doing it within 2 days right? hmm whatever

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In March of 2006 Quinn Norton, an author from Wired magazine, reports a growing interest in body modification, in the area of subdermal implants, where a three dimensional object of the wearer’s choosing, is inserted under the skin. Norton goes around interviewing several people, Shannon Larratt, and early adopter of subdermal implants; David Virda, founder of Health Educators, a ten year-old company; international body artist Emilio Gonzalez; and Dr. Phil Haeck; a plastic surgeon of Seattle, Washington, for their beliefs, ideals, and comments on the growing interest among the communities of extreme body modification.

From one point of view, when Norton interviewed Shannon, he gets that it was a dream starting off from a child, watching Star Trek, swaying him to become part of the population. It influenced him based on the diversity of the people from other worlds, but what intrigued him the most were the rigid foreheads. Shannon claims that his ideal world would be “Everyone looks interesting, everyone looks different.” When Steve Haworth, a pioneer at the time, invented a way to implant jewelry into the skin, Shannon became the first of many to receive and start off the new style and trend of body modification, subdermal implants.

Alone the idea of inserting contents of silicone under the skin, itself becomes an extreme, causing an interest for those who choose to practice skin alternation. These implants create a raised effect like any other would, but though in any shape or form creating a striking 3-D effect, such as a star, circle, heart, or even horns protruding from the skin. Those with any body modification, have incorporated them with their piercing or tattoos, often either creating an achieved stunning look, or a botched operation.

Both pioneers at the time, a woman from New Zealand, and an artist, Steve Haworth, from Phoenix, AZ, commence the body art of subdermal implants. The woman from New Zealand, comes in for a tattoo of a bracelet, with an idea, Haworth instead offers her a placing of beads around, under her wrists, becoming the first person and woman with this kind of surgical operation. Having become so popular, over 50,000 people world wide have had this kind of implant, according to Larratt, who runs BMEZine, an online community of the body modification world. As an early adopter, it comes with a price, medical-grade stainless steel were once installed, and now most commonly used is silicone, but a few with Teflon.

Subdermal implants, it is only the beginning. The rise if this popular trend will only grow larger, into a practice amongst all people. Just as society takes time to adapt, only prove that the norms that follow are not ready to accept it yet. It is an on going trend with a multitude of modifications and combination of them to come.

Presented are the effects of trying to be different, outside the norms of society to claim somewhat of an identity outside of the clones they see, soon becoming a hobby amongst them. Two of the three sociological theories take place; both symbolic interaction and functionalism are the major roles. As for symbolic interaction, they are needed, somewhat as the outcasts that any community needs, as to look down upon teaching those, what is and is not acceptable. Playing more than one role, functionalism is the larger influence, of the two, deeming the modifiers unworthy to be part of society, which only shows how the larger of society can, and will adapt to this imminent change, as if it was any other typical alteration. It is only typical of us to do so; we see anything new as a deformity or appalling, only to become accepted with time until something new has directed attention towards something unpleasant to look upon.

A quick overview of what common, normal everyday people had to say could have had a better impression of what the people might think, seeming less extreme, then only answers from doctors and health advisors who discourage and look negatively at from, not only of the causes and effects that could happen, but though the lacking of higher education these extreme body artists have, despite the training and the study in the medical field they have gone through.

Norton, Quinn. “Body Artists Customize Your Flesh.” Online posting: March 8, 2006 < http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2006/03/70322> Date accessed: April 15, 2009

Note from Prof. Esinger:

Mr. Morales:

You have done a good job summarizing your chosen article and then injecting some of the sociological concepts we have covered during the semester. You should have included a complete citation to the source of your article at the end of your paper. Also, your grammar and sentence structure could have been better!

Your presentation was good and I appreciate that you had handouts for the class to review. I am not sure why the sociological aspect did not come through in your talk but at least I found it in your paper.

Paper: 10/12

Presentation: 7/8

The holidays are quickly approaching as so far, so good, my MS has stayed as bay. It is amazing, with all that I have been thru it has stayed really quiet. (hopefully I am not jinxing it!)

I had my Tysabri treatment last week and ended up talking with a woman and her sister. She was in a wheelchair and was talking about being on Copaxone and cell cept. I told her I used to be on those and they just weren’t working for me, so I switched to Tysabri and what a miracle it has been. As they were leaving, her sister came over and thanked me. I hope she can find something that works for her. I have found by talking to people that many feel like they have no other options than the medication they are on. That is great thing about my Dr., he is pro-active. If something isn’t working, he doesn’t stop til he finds something that does.

Now Christmas is on its way. My son has, including weekends, 16 days off for the holidays. 16!!! I am already panicking!!! He had a few days off for Thanksgiving and he was bored for that.

I have been working on some new ideas for painting so that has been fun. I have also been knitting up a storm   (working on a shawl). So I find things to do but when you know you can’t go out and do too much, it sucks!

I really have to “set the scene” for this one.  My daughter in law was going out for dinner for her “once a month dinner with her friends from high school” last Fri.  My husband, youngest son, granddaughter (7 yrs), grandson (3.5 yrs) and myself decided to go to the local “Stanley’s” for our supper.  The guys had plans to golf the next day and I had plans with granddaughter, Trinity to go shopping at her favorite little shop in town, “Judy’s Cottage” as part of her first communion gift from the previous Sunday.

So, we pile into the Suburban, son driving, husband in passenger front seat, kids each in car-seats with me in between them in the backseat.  We go eat our supper and since we were near the golf course, guys want to check the golf cart to make sure it was “ready” for their first venture of the year out on the course.  In between the restaurant and the golf course, Trinity had put a piece of bubble gum in her mouth.  I was playing ABC flashcards with grandson Christopher and Trinity started to giggle and play with the gum.  Pulling it in and out of her mouth and stretching it out with her fingers all the while giggling furiously.  So what did I do, I laughed with her.  We got to the golf course, took a short ride in the cart, got back in the Suburban and the men thought “since we’re here,” we’ll take the cart to the gas station to fill it with “fresh gas.”  Because Lord knows you have to use fresh gas, can’t use gas from the tank in our yard don’t you know!!!

So we were running back and forth.  Trinity kept it up with the gum and she was cracking me up to tell you the truth.  She was so excited about our day the next day and was delighted in the fact that her dad hated her chewing gum AND playing with it the way she was but he had no idea.  It was between her and me.  We finally got home after an hour of sitting in that backseat.

So I’m telling my husband about it later that night and I told him how hilarious she was with that gum.  In walks youngest son so I started telling him about the whole scene and how funny she was.  Well, he didn’t react the way I thought he was going to.  He got mad at me.  He tells me later that he wasn’t “really” mad but I felt he was mad.  He told me that I knowingly let her do something that he didn’t like and what was that telling her??  How was I going to feel when “she was kissing boys” because Dad didn’t like it.  HOW WOULD I LIKE THAT????

I was speechless because I never thought of it that way and after a second I said “IT’S NOT THE SAME THING” and he said it was.  Was it the same thing or was I just sharing something with my granddaughter?

So I think about this for a LONG TIME while and think, maybe if it was the same thing, is it better that she can come to me and know I’ll love her and she can tell me anything, maybe something she wouldn’t want to tell mom or dad?

I’m at a loss.  How do you feel?  Was I wrong or were we both kind of doing the right thing???  HELP!!

Aside from that, I took my kitty to the vet clinic yesterday to have a tumor removed on her tummy. It was cool! I got to watch her surgery as well as a couple other dogs get neutered. This is important for up and coming vets to experience. The vet that did the surgeries was really friendly and down-to-earth. My first experience with a vet wasn’t really nice. She didn’t like kids and just didn’t seem to be good with communicating with people. So she basically scared the shit outta me (since I was only like 15). And although I’ve always wanted to be a vet, I was still a little wary of them. So it was a good experience and I learned a lot that morning about things like testosterone regulation (and why body builders have tiny testicles), viewpoints on de-clawing cats and euthanasia, and a little bit about vet school and ‘the interview.’ It was a good morning for sure.

Thats about it. Oh, yesterday my sister made me aware of a sweet youtube video, take a look see:

I am sill wearing the straight leg brace thing, I get it off this coming Tuesday, YAY!
The other pictures of my knee are the little bandage thingy they put on that day and an ice pack on my knee.

The pictures at the top are my newest gadget. Dad found it at Aldi. A travel keyboard. It’s made out of some rubber squishy thingy… best part? IT’S PURPLE!
Other new gadget news? Dad found a good deal for Verizon phones and I think he is getting them for us. So pretty soon I should have a MotoRazr… hopefully pink.

So, yeah… that is all I can think of at the moment… Later.

—————-
Now playing: O-ZONE – Mai Ai Hee (Dragostea Din Tei) [Original Romanian Version]
via FoxyTunes

You know the worst part about knee surgery, especially since I just had my left knee done 5 months ago? It’s not so much the cutting it open part that bothers me. The pictures of the inside of my knee that I get to see later are even kind of fascinating in a creepy sort of way. The worst part is that the reason I am getting this surgery is to stop my knees from dislocating and at the moment my knee is perfectly fine and doesn’t hurt at all. Starting tomorrow I will be on crutches for about two weeks and my leg will be in a foam brace thing that keeps my from bending it. Not that I’ll feel like bending it cause it will hurt to much, sometimes I wont even be able to lift my leg with out picking it up with my hands, (codeine really is a wonderful drug.)
wouldn’t it be awesome if my doctor could cut into my knee, fix everything that needs fixing and then have my knee be perfect and ready to walk and run and bend afterwards? I wouldn’t mind that at all.

Then after two weeks I get all my stitches out (ewe) and get another brace. This brace will have a hinge that can be set to different degrees or angles. My doctor will set it to 30, which isn’t very much, can’t really even sit down in a chair normally. I will also be starting physical therapy at that time… two and a half months later I will have full range of movement but my knee will still be weak.

Its been a little over 5 months since I did my left knee and I can still tell it is weak. It gets sore going down hill, I can tell that I still favor it slightly when I go down stairs (that wont last much longer.)
When I last saw my doctor I asked him how long it would be till it was normal… he said 6-9 months, months. That means it will be July at the latest before my knee’s are back to normal (minus dislocating?) if it doesn’t take longer with my right since my left is still weak.

Okay… enough depressing thoughts… I am going to got to bed now… more updates to come.