Stolen from @xDark_horizonx

1. White or red wine?

I’ll take an Evan Williams neat, prease.

2. Who was the last person you hugged?

Person? Reid. Last thing I hugged? Scully dog

3. Have you ever had a crush on a teacher?

Considering I was home schooled…. no. I did have a mega crush on my math professor at college though. She was so amazing…

4. Where did your first kiss take place?

In my driveway, on Valentine’s Day, just 2 weeks after my 18th birthday. I’m pretty sure I saw fireworks

5. Do you prefer foxes or wolves?

Wolves.

6. What is your shoesize?

7 womens, 5 mens.

7. Do you prefer fruit or vegetables?

Both?

8. Have you ever kissed a member of the same sex?

Yesssssss mmmmmm *droool* wait what?

9. Would you rather never fall in love again or never orgasm again?

Never fall in love. Most definitely.

10.What does your outfit consist of today?

Dress, cardigan, leggings, boots.

11.What are your bust-waist-hip measurements?

29, 26, 30? I think…

12.Are you a hypocrite?

Yeah :/ Aren’t we all sometimes tho? At least I admit to it.

13.Why did you last cry?

Yesterday afternoon. For no reason.

14.What are your favourite smells?

Cinnamon and gunpowder.

15.What are your favourite textures?

Fuzzy or smooth metal.

16.Fur or feathers?

Fur.

17.Tartan or tweed?

Tartan

18.Leopard print or neon?

Neither? Can I just have black?

19.Any beauty tips?

Don’t look at me.

20.Happiest moment of your life?

Whenever I get my period.

21.If you won a LOT of money/ the lottery and decided to move, where would you move to?

Some desert island all to myself…

22.Alcoholic beverage of choice?

Usually vodka.

23.What is more attractive: Nice hands or nice feet?

Nice hands. I don’t like looking at feet, even if they are pretty.

24.What’s the youngest you would consider dating?

21.

25.If you were around in the sixties would you be a mod or a rocker?

Rocker all the way.

26.Are thongs sexy?

They can be.

27.Did you grow up in a healthy environment?

Not even in the slightest.

28.What do you think of when I say “the twenties”?

Flappers and big band music.

29.Could you ever deliver a baby?

Deliver someone else’s baby or shove one out of my own vagina? In that case, the former. Never the latter.

31.What did your last text read?

Werd.

32.Can you ride a bicycle?

Yes.

33.What sport were you best at in high school?

Softball.

34.Who do you miss right now?

1 vs. 100 on the Xbox… wonderballs… sludge nation on the radio… landlines.

35.What was the last alcoholic beverage you consumed?

Angry Orchard cider.

36.Paris, London and New York… which one would you live in, which would you visit for a day, which would you visit for a fortnight?

I would live in London, spend a day in NY (that’s all you need, trust me), and a fortnight somewhere else other than France.

37.What is your sexuality?

Heteroflexible.

38.Heavy rain or heatwave?

Heavy rain. All the time.

39.Chicken or fish?

Depends on if I caught anything that day.

40.Do you think suits are sexy?

Oh yes, from birthday suits to business suits all of them are sexy in my book.

   

I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!

I don’t do the “Question of the Day” often (actually, this might be like the second time I’ve answered it) but today’s question got me thinking. How has Xanga impacted my life?
I believe being part of the community here has impacted my life greatly. I’ve been on and around this site now for around 9 years, 90% of that time I was mainly just a lurker. Last summer I actually made it a goal to interact more with the people on here. I would blog and read regularly, but very rarely ever comment. Shyness was to blame for that. I didn’t want to be that stranger who comes in and throws opinions around where they don’t belong or aren’t welcome, and sometimes people would write about things in their life or in general that I just didn’t feel like it was appropriate for me to comment. Then I realized this is the Internet and that’s what it’s there for; to interact with different people. To offer different opinions or views on a matter. To let people know they aren’t alone and that there is someone out there who will listen to them. To make people laugh. To make them think.

After I made it a goal to interact with more people on here, I noticed a positive change in my crippling social anxiety. I would get so panicky that I didn’t visit other people’s blogs just to not leave footprints without comments to not seem like a creeper, but then after I started to visit and comment I noticed that when it came to things offline, I was much more confident in myself. I wasn’t actively worried about coming across weird or socially inept (I was home schooled my entire life, those things are to be expected) when I went out anymore. I attribute that mainly to how welcoming you all on here were towards me when I started to be more active in the community instead of hiding in my corner in the dark recesses of the Internet. If Internet peoples were okay with me, then maybe real life peoples would be okay with me too. After all, they aren’t subjected to my random thought dumps every day unlike Xangans.

Now, I barely bat an eye when it comes to going out and doing things with other people. It gives me something to write about if anything. I can’t remember the last time I had a panic attack just because I was out in public. I don’t think that would be the case if it hadn’t been for Xanga. Cheesy? Probably, but it’s still true.

So thank you to all of you who have ever taken the time to encourage me, make me feel welcome and safe in this community. Those who have made me laugh, those who have caused me to pause and think, those who reached out to me when I was down and offered an Internet shoulder to lean against and cry on, and especially those who always have a smile in their pocket to toss my way when I need one (you know who you are. Yes, I’m talking about you). Thank you.

No really, THANK YOU.

I’ve been doing a lot of research on narcolepsy ever since my sleep study consultation appointment last Friday.
Like most everybody else I thought narcolepsy was just randomly falling asleep when you didn’t plan on sleeping. What it really is, is a chronic neurological disorder that prevents the brain from regulating sleep like it should.
Before my appointment I had to fill out a rather large questionnaire. There were a few strange questions on there, like, “Do you lose muscle control when you laugh?”
Honestly, I had never thought of that before and I didn’t know what to put so I waited to answer it until I was at my appointment so the doctor could clarify that question. He then asked more specifically, “Do you slur your words when you get excited or after laughing?” And I answered yes to that one. I don’t slur when I’m not excited but if you get me excited and laughing I have a hard time getting anything out that is intelligible. Then he asked if my hands felt weak when I was laughing or if I was particularly angry. I answered yes for that one too. Often when I laugh really hard I’ll drop what I’m holding or will have to put it down to not drop it and sometimes my knees will buckle when I laugh a bit and I can’t help it so I have to stop.
I thought that was normal for everyone but apparently it’s not. This is something known as “cataplexy” and is very, very common in narcoleptics.

He then asked me if I ever hear things that might be from a dream before I’m actually fully asleep. This happens to me all the time. Whenever I lay down to go to sleep it doesn’t take long before I start to hear things, people’s voices that aren’t there or just noises from every day activities that I am not doing at the moment (and the house is completely quiet because Reid is asleep). When I wake up, sometimes I will still hear things for a few minutes before actually standing up and getting out of bed. Sometimes, I will wake up and still be smelling whatever it is that I was smelling in my dreams (oddly enough that smell is usually garlic). Apparently, this is called “Hypnagogia”.
This is also something that is common for narcoleptic people. Narcoleptics usually go into REM sleep sometimes as soon as 5 minutes after closing their eyes while for normal people it takes about an hour to get to REM sleep. Narcoleptics spend 5 times longer in REM sleep than normal people.

Sleep paralysis is another common symptom. I have only had that happen a couple of times but I have to say, it’s seriously THE MOST DISTURBING thing I have ever gone through. The first time it happened, I literally thought I was being possessed by a demon spirit. I opened my eyes in the middle of the night and thought I saw a shadow in the corner, and then it felt like I was being dragged off the bed, so I tried to yell out for Reid but I couldn’t. I was completely conscious and flipped out in my head when I realized I couldn’t so much as control my own breathing (I was still breathing, the diaphragm is not affected by sleep paralysis but it was so scary to not even be able to take a big gulp of air like I wanted to in that moment even though I was breathing just fine). Again, apparently this is something that is common for people with narcolepsy.

Insomnia is also a symptom as well as sleeping for the recommended amount of time but never feeling rested. These will switch off from what I’ve been told. I have had bouts of horrible insomnia, but right now it’s the excessive daytime sleepiness that is killing me. For the past few months I’ve been doing well with sleeping for 8 hours a night but I always wake up feeling more tired than when I went to sleep. I have also been waking up with strange bruises that I think are coming from my tossing and turning and hitting myself in my sleep (something that I’ve done since I was a kid).

That all being said, it’s not a mental illness and it’s not caused by mental illnesses or any other psychological disorder. It is genetic, pretty sure my grandpa has it and I inherited that from him (fine with me, I love my Papa to death, and this just makes me more like him. Or that is how I’ve chosen to view it at least). It’s caused by a lack of hypocretin in the brain which controls sleep and appetite (this might also explain why I don’t “feel” hunger like normal people… suddenly everything about my life is making sense).
It’s also not curable (geeze what is it with this body and getting all these diseases that aren’t curable or are only found in diabetic, obese old people??? I want a new body…) but the doc told me to not despair, which I really wasn’t, I’m fine with living with this as long as there is something that can help the symptoms. Hell, I recently started drinking every night to suppress REM sleep… and I’ve only had a handful of drinks since July 3rd 2010 (yes, it was that bad of a bender that I remember the exact date). I know it’s a fine line to walk with alcohol and sleep disorder but I’m no longer having nightmares that leave me in a cold sweat so I’ll continue to have a few ciders before bed until we find another band-aid.

It’s really so ironic that I would actually have narcolepsy since all my home-school high school friends used to make fun of me and call me a narcoleptic for falling asleep easily in a crowded room or dosing off during home group classes and stuff. I’m going to hear endless “I told you so’s” for a while I’m sure.

So what new things have you learned this week now that I’ve shared my new tidbits of knowledge?

I got this message from my covert account.
It’s weirding me out.

*sorry, pic is tiny. It says it was sent from restlessbutterfly from Shimmerbodycream1 and it asks if I want to be a troll and includes a screen cap from Summer’s site*

Am I missing something or does it really not make sense for someone to message this screencap around that’s nearly 2 years old? The title of the email was “Troll Recruitment.”

And now for an unprotected post (sounds scandalous).

Reid and I will be going on vacation starting April 25th! Thursday night we are going to a special screening of Star Trek: The Next Generation “Best of Both Worlds”. We got the last 2 seats that were side-by-side for the viewing. Then we are both taking Friday off and going out of town until Sunday the 28th. I was talking to my grandparents the other night about our get away and how it was more than likely just going to be one night out of town and we would be tent camping to save money and also because it would be fun. Apparently, they didn’t like that idea too much, so they insisted on paying for a hotel to stay in and that way we could also have 2 nights out of town (we originally planned on Reid working a lunch/dinner shift Friday in trade for Sunday off and then figured we would just take the whole damn weekend. It’s not like we ever get the opportunity to do anything like this). I have a loose itinerary, we will be visiting local wineries, driving Skyline Drive for a bit, maybe even find a cave or two to check out. There’s a tobacco shop in Charlottesville (where we will be going) that has some of our favourite smoking tobacco (it’s called the “Sherlock Holmes” and it’s tobacco that’s been soaked in cherries. Has incredibly flavor). I’m going to order a pipe that I know Reid has had his eye on for a year or so and surprise him with it there. (As for those who were in on the other “surprise” I was thinking about, that’s off for now). This is the pipe:

The hotel we got is nice. King size bed and a little living room area with a TV. I doubt we will spend much time in it though, we will probably spend a great deal just walking around downtown and the UVA campus (Reid is thinking about going there). I will also get to visit one of my best friends who goes to school there so that will be fun. I’m trying to find out if there is any bands in town or any place that might have live music that weekend. I think that would be fun.
I am so incredibly excited about this vacation it isn’t funny. This will be only the 2nd time that we have ever gotten to get away just by ourselves. It’s going to be aaaaaamaaaaaazzziiiiiiiiiinnnnngggg! I will try to remember to take lots of pics!

I am so out of shape. I mowed the office yesterday and then walked a few miles with Scully and took her to a dog park with a friend of mine. It was a gorgeous day. I loved getting to walk around and explore new parts of the city I had never seen before. All in all, it was a fantastic day

I’m seriously considering getting a tattoo. I have lots of ideas for ones I want but none of them have ever turned into, “OMG I HAVE TO HAVE THAT ON MY BODY” sort of thing. I’ve always maintained that I would get a tattoo as soon as I needed one on my body that I wasn’t content with just making a print of and hanging on my wall. I’m usually not a fan of script tattoos because for me, I know my mottos change all the time. But there is one quote I would like to have somewhere visible to me (ie. not on my back or something where I can’t see it myself). It’s a quote from Carl Sagan, “A still more glorious dawn awaits.” I don’t know, but I just need that as a constant reminder. It’s always stuck with me and I can’t think of a more kick ass first tattoo than a Carl Sagan quote. After that I’m sure I’ll refine my half-sleeve idea I’ve been tossing around forever (the only problem is my arms are INCREDIBLY stick thin. All the detail I want in my sleeve would be microscopic. Just another motivation to gain weight, the other being roller derby).

Spring has finally arrived in good ol RVA. Yesterday was beautiful.. Today could stand to be a little less warm! I hope this summer is milder than last summer. I’m also going to be selling my car soon and taking Reid’s old car. He is getting a 2004 Ford Escape next month. The car he has now is a ’94 Toyota Corolla. It has about 170K miles on it. My car is a ’98 Chevy Malibu and it only has 86K miles on it (yeah I know, it’s amazing). I’m going to be selling mine because we can get more money for it and the Corolla would probably outlast mine anyways (at least that is what my buddies have been telling me and I trust them completely when it comes to cars). Plus, his A/C works better than mine does so I won’t melt if this summer turns out to be anything like last summer!

Other than that there really hasn’t been anything exciting going on. Just life as usual. Only 17 more days until get away!!!!!! (Yeah I’m so not excited about that at all).

How was everyone else’s weekend?