Diary of a Surgery Recoverer: Day 6

Today is Day 6 of my recovery!  And I'm bored out of my mind already!  Here's what I've done so far today:

- Watched 12 Emma Watson interviews on YouTube (obsession fueled by this magazine that Brittany brought to me, which I have read cover to cover)

- Walked up and down the hallway for 9 minutes.  Gotta get these muscles moving!

- Watched last night's 90210 and Gossip Girl, both of which threw me twists that I did not see coming!  Good job, CW!  Also, for anyone else out there currently watching the third season of Downton Abbey via sketchy internet means...please e-mail me to discuss.

- Ate two pieces of cinnamon toast, which for the rest of my life will never stop tasting insanely good to me.

- Read the first chapter of The Girl the Dragon Tattoo, which left me insanely bored and not desiring to read any more at all.  Judging by everyone in the world's deep love for this series...it gets better, right?

- Took my second post-surgery shower!  Yes, if you do the math...that is one shower every 3 days.  My excuse is that I'm not supposed to get my incision spot wet.

- Made a semi-dramatic playlist for my future hallway walks.

Tune in tomorrow for more recovery adventures, if you think you can handle the excitement.

Weekend: Surgery

The best party about having surgery:  everybody you love sends you flowers and candy and magazines and a million text messages!

The worst part about having surgery:  everything else about having surgery.

Last Thursday, I had a procedure done to fix the herniated disc in my back I've been struggling with for the last year and a half, and it all went (mostly) really well!  Now I'm home again, with a husband who is taking care of my every whim, and I'm ready to get some serious recovery underway!

In the past 5 days, I've had many firsts, including:

My first overnight stay in a hospital.
My first experience in an operating room.
My first time laying down for 24 hours without moving - much easier said than done.
My first time watching 5 episodes of Secret Life of the American Teenager in a row (which I do not recommend to anyone)
My first time eating a dinner that Scott made without any help from me - and it was delish!

My life is going to be a teensy bit boring the next few weeks because I can't do much while my back is healing up, but since blogging is one thing that's really easy to do from bed...you'll still hear from me :)

Lots of Goodness to Look Forward To

Currently happening:
 I'm getting my poor aching back fixed for good!
(Immediately followed by 2-4 weeks off work to recover.  I'm okay with that)
Maybe I'll be able to do this again:

In 19 days:
I'm going to see Cousin Matthew from Downton Abbey, except he will not be Cousin Matthew, he'll be a different character in a play on Broadway called The Heiress, but he will be there IN THE BLUE-EYED FLESH


In 22 days:
My dear friend Lynn comes to visit and run the IMG Marathon!  I will be cheering so loudly from my spot on the curb in Harlem when she passes me!

In 30 days:
Scott's finally cashing in his birthday present:  a helicopter lesson! 
He gets to fly it himself, and it is going to be awwwwwwesome.

In about a month:
We'll find out where we're living next year.
can
not
wait

 In 2 months and 9 days:
We head home for Christmas!
Weather permitting, of course (come on, Northeast, save your blizzard for January, please!).

OK, so this is actually us in New York at Christmas, so it doesn't make much sense, but still.  It's Christmas!

In 5 months:
I'm going to turn 28, and there will be no more denying the fact that I'm in my late 20s.

In 7 months and 11 days:
Scott will graduate and I will be a Mrs. Dentist.
!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is what comes up if you google "Mrs. Dentist."

In 1 year, 1 month, and 12 days:
Catching Fire comes out!
...really?  That far away still?  That's not even worth getting excited about.

In 38ish years:  retirement

The Dress I Totally Copied

A few weeks ago, I got a Lands End catalog in the mail.  Normally I just toss these things aside, but this time, I decided to take a little look through it.  And I saw this dress.  And I became obsessed with it.  And I didn't have $194 to buy it, so I just decided to make my own.  See?
Pretty similar, don'tcha think?  I really love my version, though there are obviously lots of slight differences between mine and the L.E. one.  Such as:

• I used wool for my main fabric, while the other is twill.
• I used pleather that actually feels sort of like suede for the "leather" accents, while the other dress uses the real stuff.
• My dress has slightly different coloring, but still maintains the neutral (great for autumn!) palette, so I'm fine with it!
• Mine is more awesome.

The details:
Fabric - Pleather and wool suiting fabric from Fabric.com
Pattern - Yoke borrowed from Salme's Yoke Blouse, the rest of the dress a major modification on Grainline's Tiny Pocket Tank (lengthened to dress length, pockets added, neckline extended to meet yoke)
Time - about 5 hours total
Consensus - Love!

P.S.  The last thing I made just for me was a dress way back in August.  Feels good to get to selfishly sew a little bit again!

Recharged

I spent the majority of the last week (starting last Monday, all the way through today!) feeling under the weather.  The usual head cold, slight fever, headache, sinus pain kind of thing I get every year when the seasons change from summer to fall and again winter to spring.

So, in the last 7 days:

I have worn make-up twice.
I watched every single show in my Hulu queue.  Most of them in bed.
I finished the last few pages of my book.
I did not pick up a single bit of the mess in the living room.
I spent every evening in, on the couch, with Scott.
I neglected the internet almost completely.
I went through 14 Kleenexes in 3 hours one day at work.
I relaxed as much as I could and let my body fix itself.

I'm renewed and recharged for the days ahead.  Although being sick is the worst, it's also a reminder that our bodies are so amazingly made that they can actually communicate to us when we need to slow down.  Don't forget to listen!

Book I Read in September

The next four books I plan on reading/re-reading are all coming out as movies in the next few months, and I want to read all the books first!  Want to join me?  They will be:  Cloud Atlas, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Les Miserables, and The Great Gatsby.

This month, I only finished one of them, but it was a tremendous, dense, complicated one, to say the least.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Scott read this one first and has been begging me to read it for the last year, and I finally did!  There doesn't seem to be a whole lot you can say about this book without simply giving up the intricacies that unfold as you make your way through the book, but I'll do my best:  Cloud Atlas is a set of six stories - completely different eras, settings, and characters - that are connected only by very (seemingly) thin threads.  As you read each section of the book, written brilliantly in completely and totally unique voices and styles, you get caught up in each of the individual plots, and then begin discovering connections between them all.  I truthfully didn't really know if I liked this book or not until I was well over halfway through, at which point I found myself thinking about it constantly when I wasn't reading it (always a good sign!).  The film comes out on October 26th, and critics and audiences have been having mostly really strong reactions - either loving it or hating it.  We're hoping to love it!  There is an incredibly epic, over-five-minute long trailer out there, but I think it gives a little bit too much away, so I'll leave you with this regular-sized trailer instead.

Weekend: Maker Faire

This weekend, Scott and I ventured out to Queens (like, third stop from the end of the 7 line in Queens...that is FAR) to the New York Hall of Science to attend Maker Faire.

Maker Faire was exactly what it sounded like:  a fair for people who make stuff.  But the stuff that they make is next-level-awesome stuff.  Such as:

Gigantic thumb war.

Avocado hot dogs.  (AKA sliced avocado covered in panko bread crumbs, fried, and served in a hot dog bun with a pickle, tomatoes, and mustard.  YUM-O)

Clothing made from Metro Cards, and also a matching, dancing robot.

Life-size Mouse Trap (remember that game?!).

Crazy body contortions.

Yankee Stadium out of toothpicks, which Jane Velez-Mitchell reports on. Chalk drawings that get washed away in 30 minutes of rain :(

Rockets.  (Just kidding, these were made a long time ago and are just in the museum, duh!)

But the main Maker trend of the fair was definitely 3-D printers.  Guys, I can't explain how it works or why it works or even what the heck kind of purpose these things would serve, but these are printers that make three-dimensional objects.  Seriously.  They are programmed to make them out of melted plastic, and it takes hours and hours of them very slowly building up the object until it becomes a real thing.

Like this owl figurine.

And this plastic ring.

And these adorable tiny robots!

Ah, Science.  Somehow you simultaneously intrigue me and bore me, but I'm glad to have spent a whole day with you.