Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter

Several weeks ago, a co-worker loaned me this book. I wasn't initially certain that I wanted to read it, but I really enjoyed the experience!

This author, Seth Grahame-Smith, apparently also wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which is a book I have not read. Either way, I would suggest that before attempting to read either one, you've just got to suspend your disbelief. I don't generally choose science fiction or fantasy-type books because I have a lot of trouble doing that. I had to take breaks from reading this one - mostly because I was sick - but that gave me a chance to make sure I wasn't being overly skeptical.

I think one of my favorite parts of this book was the degree to which the author incorporated actual historical facts. For the most part, I felt like I was really just reading a work of historical fiction, which is one of my very favorite genres. I was totally fascinated by the concept that the nation was being torn apart by the existence of slavery. For some reason, in my education so far, I'd always had the impression that slavery was not a source of significant cultural tension but rather a pretext for war.

I don't believe the fictitious premise that one reason slave owners were so excited about protecting the institution of slavery was to ensure that there would always be access to victims. However, that prospect deals with an interesting logistical issue: how do vampires eat without being caught? I agree with the author that using slaves would be a relatively simple way to avoid detection, assuming the vampire can afford to buy them.

All in all, I would recommend this book. There is a little bit of gore, both when the vampires feed and when Abe Lincoln hunts (and kills) them. While there is quite a bit of fantasy, I think it still presents some cultural aspects that ring true.

FD: Entryway and Hallway

Here's the first stop on the photo tour of my tree house apartment!

For an apartment that's really not that big, my place has a pretty substantial hallway!

Come on in!

Here's the view as soon as you step inside. I guess maybe I should straighten the rug next time...

Here's another view, showing the corner and the coat closet.

This is a view of the corner from the opposite direction.

And here's the inside of the front door and the intercom!

Here's the corner with the lights turned on. I guess they're a little bit blown out, but I think they really do a lot for that piece of art.

And there's the linen closet. It's nothing special, but when you put all of these pictures together, you can get a sense of the size of the hallway. Stay tuned: the living room is up next!

Health Update

Yesterday, I met with the neurosurgeon. It still seems quite likely that I am going to have to have surgery to repair the aneurysm on the right side of my brain. The surgeon pointed out that the risk of rupture or bleeding of this aneurysm is very low, though I have a difficult time taking that at face value because I experienced bleeding with one of the others. (My blood pressure is under better control now, which should reduce the risk of bleeding from any aneurysm.) The surgeon also noted that we need to make certain we understand the status of the aneurysm on the left side - the one that was "coiled" while I was in the hospital. Apparently, when the coiling occurred, something a little bit unusual happened. I've felt fine and I've been released from the hospital, so I didn't really understand until my meeting with the neurosurgeon exactly what had happened. My body's reaction was not negative, it was simply sort of unusual. But, because of this, its important to him that I have another angiogram to make sure that the work on the left side aneurysm was effective.

For now, that's the plan. I'm going to have the angiogram as soon as the interventional radiologist is ready. Once it's confirmed that everything on the left side is holding steady and safe in the long term, we can begin making plans for surgery on the right side. If things on the left are unstable, then we can make plans for urgent surgery or additional coiling on the left first, followed by surgery on the right at a later date. I believe that the next step - the angiogram - will be essentially an outpatient procedure that will require only a day or two off work. I'm  looking forward to getting back to my usual stuff, both at work and at home!

In the meantime, there's one little project I thought I would share with you. You wouldn't believe the amount of paper generated by my hospital and clinic visits. ARGH! I'm a pretty respectable filer when it comes to most of my documentation. But, given all of the on-going care necessary with this aneurysm/high blood pressure stuff, I really need to have my papers with me. For now, I'm carrying them with me basically all the time, though I know I won't have to do that always. This is what my dining room table looked like once I got home from the hospital and got everything unpacked!

On the left side of this photo, you'll notice a black three-ring binder with a white circle pattern. It was my plan to hole-punch all of my papers and shove them in there so I could carry them along to whatever appointments I have. Unfortunately, I didn't check the binder carefully before purchasing it and it wasn't until all the papers were loaded that I noticed that one of the rings didn't close all the way. NOOOOO! Not a good way to keep papers organized, as each sheet threatened to fall out.

So, I replaced it with a different binder whose rings were thoroughly examined at the store. The binder I picked out was plain green, but I dressed it up a little bit with this piece of scrapbook paper I found in my collection. Nice! Preppy, much? Maybe I will replace it with a piece of wintry-themed paper as the holidays approach...

And here's all of it The discharge papers, the doctors' business cards, and the CDs with images all together in one nice little stack. I think this is proof that binders are the way to go! While I love my file cabinet, I've definitely developed a new appreciation for binders as an organizational method.

The First Draft

I love Apartment Therapy! If you haven't already become a regular reader of this blog, it's time to get on board. I think one of my favorite things about it is that I see a wide variety of different styles showcased, including styles from homes all over the country.

There are different blog "events" throughout the year, including the Small Cool Contest which takes place each April. There are several categories of size (teeny-tiny, small, etc.) and homeowners or renters compete for votes. I considered submitting my apartment this past April to see how it might go, but I wasn't in a great position to enter the contest. In particular, I was worried about creating quality photos because I didn't have a very good camera. One of the reasons I asked for such a nice camera as a birthday gift was so that I might be able to take some better pictures and submit in 2013!

One of the things I had to do before deciding for sure I wanted to enter the contest was to determine the square footage of my apartment. While I live in a large, modern (less than 30 years old) building with lots of standard-sized apartments, my unit is one of only three like it in the entire building. The upper-most limit on the size to participate in Small Cool is 1000 square feet.

I decided that the appropriate way to proceed was to draw my own - to the best of my availability. I invited Daisy, the math whiz, over to help me. Mercifully, she agreed! I was glad to have her help for sure.

Do you know what this is? I certainly wouldn't blame you if you didn't. This is my linen closet. Why did I take this photo?

Because, when I tried to measure the linen closet, of course the tape measure got stuck. ARGH! Thankfully this occurred just a short time before Daisy arrived. Between the two of us, we were able to unstick the tape measure and complete the floor plan.

So, here's the floor plan we came up with. Daisy was awesome and helped me with the measuring and with the calculation of the square footage, which was especially important for the living room! She's really a math whiz and I would not have been able to do it without her help. By the time we were done, we had calculated that the apartment is 950 square feet, which fits just inside the guidelines for the Small Cool contest. Yes!

Not that long ago, I had a chance to take several pictures of the apartment when it was appropriately picked up. When I submit to Small Cool, I will be able to submit 4 or 5 photos (I can't remember the number) along with the floor plan. Any and all feedback you have about the photos or the spaces is absolutely welcome! I think it is unlikely that I'll feature either of the bathrooms, for example. But even still, I'm going to need to narrow things down considerably. Moreover, I'm expecting to take additional photos before selecting which to share with the world. So, I could easily shoot in different light or move something around. Let me know what you think! Over the next several weeks, I'll be sharing these photos with you room by room. I'm looking forward to your input regarding my tree house apartment!

Malled

During my recovery, I've had plenty of time to read! One of the most interesting books I've read recently was Malled by Caitlin Kelly.

Ms Kelly was a journalist, about 50 years old, when she began working for the North Face in a mall in Westchester County, New York. She had previously been employed full-time as a journalist, but had begun doing primarily freelance work when she decided that something structured would be a good addition to her life! She chose a path in retail, probably before it would have been possible to understand just what was going to happen when the economy began receding. This book was very interesting and a pretty quick read. I would highly recommend it!

As some of you might remember, I worked in retail while I was in high school, at a little shop that was a competitor of Hallmark. I sold collectibles and cards, and worked in the mall, just like lots of other kids from the suburbs. I quit the job because it interfered with the extracurricular activities I had on my plate, though it was a good experience because having retail on your resume is ubiquitous. Kelly's experiences were similar to mine: retail is not the path to upward mobility whether in the company or in society more generally.

I think the most interesting aspect of this book actually was not the author's "under-cover" reporting about her experiences working at the North Face. In addition, she researched her book by meeting with company officials and sales associates at luxury retailers. This small sliver of society included some people who work retail for a living as a career! These chapters allowed her to explore what makes someone a good fit for retail and what kinds of things allow a retail job to become a career. Not shopping at luxury retailers, and never having seriously considered retail as a long-term career path, it hadn't occurred to me to imagine that there are some people who spend a career in this industry and what that might look like.

I think the best take-away lesson from this book was the author's experience of being "invisible" as a sales associate. She explains several instances of when she was treated exceptionally rudely by customers shopping at the store, and she noted that there are probably some other retailers where the treatment by the customers is even worse. I think the author, as a middle-aged person with some other work experience behind her, was uniquely positioned to notice this treatment as invisible. While I was a sales associate at age 16, I was treated like I was invisible, but I assumed that was related to my age more than anything (which may well have been true). As I've been out and about shopping lately, I've certainly thought about how I interact with the staff. While it's never been my custom to be rude to staff at shops, this book definitely reminded me that I don't know anything at all about the people working there. I might be inclined to make judgments about them based on the fact that they work as sales associates, but I really should try to avoid that. Someday soon, the employees at any particular store might become my friends, my neighbors, my co-workers or even my fellow customers. 

Flowers in Stitches

As you may have observed earlier, I've been trying to learn to do embroidery. Why? Well, I guess I have a general interest in it. But, more specifically, I saw a SUPER cute craft kit for sale and I knew I'd need to embroider to complete the craft.

Yep, you read that right: this baby is from the brains of the lovely and talented Martha Stewart (or, more likely, one of the minions who make her taste come to life!). Anyways, I'd highly recommend her embroidery kits because they come with some relatively clear instructions. I also used this website for backup and couldn't recommend it more highly.

You might remember my earlier post about learning embroidery, and all I can say is that embroidery takes more time to make progress than either knitting or crocheting. I enjoyed it a lot, and found that it was an awesome warm weather project, because it wasn't like I had some warm, fuzzy, pile of yarn snuggled in my lap.

Here's the finished product!

So excited its finished!!! The Martha kit came with the tote bag, the embroidery floss, a needle, and instructions. The bag came with a washable ink outline of the pattern already stamped on. Here's a close-up:

Then, I washed the ink off the bag and got a more defined look, as shown below! 

So, after adding all of the embroidery, here it is all done!

 

I'll be using the bag for storage and travel with a crochet project. Very excited!

My Unscheduled Break

If you regularly read this blog, you probably have already noticed that I've been away for about 2 weeks. This break was definitely unplanned and unfortunate. I thought I'd take a few minutes to tell you a little bit about what's been going on with me. This post might be kind of dull- apologies in advance!

One of my last posts before my hiatus was about how I was slow on my blogging because of a migraine. On Wednesday, August 22, I spent almost the whole day doing my usual stuff: going to work, shopping at Target, hanging out with Ginny and her family. That night when I returned home, at about 11:00 pm, I suddenly had the worst headache I had ever experienced. Before I knew it, I was vomiting like crazy (which, for me, isn't all that unusual when I have a headache). I called my parents and, when the vomiting woke me up, we decided to head to the ER. I vomited again in the car and waiting at the ER. When I described all of these symptoms to the ER staff, they decided I was having a migraine, which made sense to me. I was treated with a very powerful migraine medication, D.H.E., which made me feel better. I still had a bit of a residual headache, but I was so tired (from the meds and the fact that it was 6 AM), I felt like I had improved. I was soon discharged from the hospital.

I spent Thursday, August 23 resting at home. I did some blogging, some talking on the phone and all the other fun stuff you get to do when you're home sick. On Friday morning, I took the most powerful OTC migraine medicine I could find and headed off to work. It was the kind of day at the office that would have given me a headache anyways! It was unfortunate. I left around lunch time and spent the rest of the day resting. On Saturday, I still had a headache but I felt like I was continuing to improve. I spent most of the day doing tasks around the house, and then in the evening, I attended a barbeque with my coworkers. On Saturday night, I was tired and went to bed early.

Sunday morning, things turned around for the worst. My head hurt worse than it had in days and I had no appetite. I had "breakfast" at about 3 in the afternoon, then chugged over to Staples, which was the one errand I had to run during the entirety of the weekend. I got what I needed, but my head seemed to hurt with each step I took. I went to my parents house and relaxed for a while before the three of us had a family dinner. I did manage to eat most of a normal meal! After dinner, my parents convinced me to skip work on Monday and spend the night at their house. I'm glad I made that decision!

Monday, August 27, was my follow-up appointment in the clinic to discuss migraine and the elevated blood pressure I'd been experiencing at the ER. By the time I went there in the afternoon, I was so nauseated I asked my mom to drive me to the appointment. I met with a resident and a doc who were both unfamiliar to me. They both said they thought it was a migraine but wanted to order an MRI just to be sure. They were able to schedule it at the hospital in Burnsville for the next day, thankfully! I went back to my parents house and spent the night there again. I had a bit of an irrational fear that they were going to keep me at the hospital, and I was still feeling kind of woozy, so I asked my dad to drive me. Luckily, he was available.

While I was at the MRI, everything went fine. I had to have "contrast" injected, which was a little difficult because the technician struggled to find a vein. Another nurse dropped by and got the IV in. After I left the MRI, I met up with my dad who was participating in a work conference call by cell phone. We spent another half hour or so at the hospital before heading home. While Dad was driving towards home, the doctor I'd seen the day before called. He told me that the scans showed at least two aneurysms in my brain, and that at least one of them had been bleeding, causing the headache. He told me I needed to go directly to Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina where I'd be meeting with a neurologist.

Dad and I scooted home and picked up Mom, who was eating lunch on her break between her part-time job and her volunteer project. She met us in the car and away we sped towards the hospital! I spent most of the ride trying hard not to get upset because I was very frightened and I understood that becoming upset might make the aneurysm bleed more or even rupture, causing a stroke. We arrived at Southdale in record time, before the room I'd be staying in was even ready! A few minutes later, though, I was in the room and the neurologist came in. He explained that they had made an urgent appointment for me to have an angiogram where they were going to look at the aneurysms more carefully and hopefully repair them. A few minutes later, I was in the gown and being wheeled downstairs.

After one false start, it was angiogram time! In this procedure, they inset a teensy little needle into the femoral artery near your hip and thread it up through the body. Sometimes, they use this process to deal with issues in the heart, but for me, they threaded it all the way to my brain. It's really a very neat procedure! They discovered that there were three aneurysms in my brain. Unfortunately, by the time the angiogram was complete, it was late enough in the evening that the doctors decided I should wait overnight and have the procedure done in the morning, when everyone was fresher and when the hospital was fully staffed.

On Wednesday morning, August 29, I had another angiogram. They were able to "coil" the aneurysm that had bled. This process involves the injection of platinum coils into the aneurysm to shrink it down and hold it steady so that it won't bleed anymore. I am grateful to say that the bleeding aneurysm was successfully coiled. Unfortunately, the other two aneurysms couldn't be addressed this way. I asked the doctor before the procedure if this was going to improve my headache. His answer was "No." I thought about it for a few seconds and then realized that there was an unsaid comment attached to that answer: it wasn't going to help my headache, it was merely going to save my life.

I spent basically the next week in the hospital, all but one night of which was in the ICU. It was your typical hospital stay: lots of applesauce and daytime cable. I had a few visitors, which I so appreciated, though it seemed like all of the hospital's defenses were armed to try to keep people away.

The primary reason I had to stay for so long was to make sure that my blood pressure was well under control. The headache had already begun to dissipate by the time I had the angiogram and it just kept getting better as the days went by. I think that typically people who are treated for hypertension go to the clinic, get a prescription, try it out, and come back in a few weeks for close follow-up to make sure that the medicine is doing enough but not too much. Because I still have two untreated aneurysms in my brain, the docs were really concerned about making sure the medicine was doing a great job. A decrease in blood pressure should help reduce the risk that one of the aneurysms will blow before I can have surgery. Once the BP was pretty well controlled, I got to leave the ICU and be reunited with these gorgeous flowers!

I was released from the hospital on Wednesday, September 5. Check out this view! Woo hoo Edina!

I went to my parents house after being released and stayed there for a couple more nights before returning to my apartment and trying to get back to normal. I've got some follow up visits scheduled, including one with a brain surgeon. It seems, at this point, that surgery of some kind to fix the unresolved aneurysms is inevitable. I will definitely keep you guys posted on what the plans are! While I had great care in the hospital, at this point, I'm still just thrilled to be home! It's such a treat, after a full 8 nights in the hospital, to be able to go wherever I want, including the bathroom, without help. I also get the eat whatever I want and be sure that no one is going to come into my hospital room in the middle of the night and shine a flashlight in my eyes to make sure I'm not having a stroke (this happened to me at least twice, often more, every night I was in the hospital). Even though it's wonderful to be on the outside, I am hoping my surgery will be scheduled soon so that this whole issue can be finally wrapped up. I think that will decrease my concern that something bad could happen at any given moment.

As I wait for my surgery, I'm just trying to get back to normal! I'm hoping to have some good posts for you this coming week. I'm also really looking forward to going back to work. I've missed my coworkers and the intellectual challenge of going to work and solving problems all day long. I'm also convinced, based on the amount of time I spent with my doctors, that I chose the right path for my education and my career. I've also really missed spending time with my friends. My heart broke each time I had to cancel a social commitment during my two weeks of convalescence. I can't wait to get back to all of it!