Power of a koala!!! (Form of a roly poly Bear, obviously)

Gah.

I've been taking Lithium to help get my internal chemical choo choo back on track. Lithium helped me many years before deal with this bipolar Illness and after trying about five other medications (all with varying degrees of suckage), I decided it might be wisest to go back to what worked before.

So far, so good. I think it's helping and I've had way lesser urges to hurt myself. Which is also good.

That plus I'm calmer.

Yet. With every drug, there's a reaction. Sometimes, it's relatively benign. Or for some people, it's a bonus. Lithium makes me thirsty but not as hungry. Seeing as I like to keep my weight at around an even 100 and it's been a tad over that, it makes me happy. I've been drinking my liquids like mad (and I have to as well) and eating smaller amounts.

Lithium, being a salt, needs to have plenty of liquids taken with it or it can build up to toxic levels in the bloodstream and that would Not Be Good. So Arizona's Green Tea with Honey has been my best friend. It's yummy and I drink TONS of it.

But sometimes, the side effects are not so awesome. In this case, it's what I call the Koala Bear effect. I get sleepy. Oh, gods, do I get sleepy. I wake up in the morning NOT feeling like P. Diddy. It takes me a good half an hour to really be aware and then I head to the shower and soak my head and start waking up. Then I kind of am mostly awake until around 2 when my body is ready for action. Two in the afternoon, that is.

If I'm doing stuff in the morning, then I need a nap. I'll lay down around 2 or 3 and sleep for a couple of hours. Then, I'll wake up and be able to do some more stuff before needing to go back to bed.

It's getting better. The need for a nap can be put off and if I get to bed at a semi decent time at night, I can be awake in the morning and do stuff.

It is, thankfully, the only side effect that I have to work around. I tell my boys and my Awesome Guy that I'm feeling like a Koala Bear and so they understand if I'm moving a little slower than usual.

I think, though, that I'd much rather be on Lithium than not. This Illness has to be controlled and has to be taken seriously. I'm finally coming around to the idea that it is like having cancer or diabetes and if I'm going to be foolish about it, I put my life in danger. And I have everyone around me sick with worry because I am suicidal or close to it.

So I'll take my Lithium. And do my best impersonation of a Koala Bear until my body adjusts to having it and uses it as it should.


K.

Movies movies movies!

I want a money tree in my back yard.

There are so many awesome movies out right now and thus far, I've seen exactly NONE. Yes, that's right. None. Zero. Zip. Nadda. Because I has no money, honey. At least, not right now.

I really want to see Toy Story 3. I was holding my breath when I heard it was coming out because Toy Story 1 and 2 were so epic and I was thinking, oh, please, don't screw this one up. Of course, being Pixar, they didn't. From all I've heard, it's wonderful and heartbreaking and classic Pixar. I can hardly wait to see it.

Next on my docket is Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The reviews on this movie have amused me greatly. The critics who clearly don't "get it" are all condescending and whatnot and like, "well, if you're a gamer, you'll get it." Well, duh! Stupid Head. This game is a lovesong to those of us who have spent any time with a video game, whether it's the old 8 bit or the newest Modern Warfare version and we all "get it." I think the movie is going to be a riot. I saw the trailer and laughed myself through it. That plus, well, it's a movie for a geek girl like me. How can I resist? Plus, the cutie who plays Scott Pilgrim is one of my favourite young actors, anyway. He just has the winsome "take me home, I'm just a lost little puppy" look to him. I'm sure there are many geek girls who would be happy to do just that.

I really want to see Winter's Bone before it leaves the theatre. I've heard that this movie is just totally intense and the young actress who plays the 17 year old lead character is sublime. In this movie, the 17 year old heroine has to find her father who skipped bail, otherwise they lose the home that houses her, her two little siblings and a mother who is there just in name. This young lady has to go through the woods to track him down and she may not find him as he's taken refuge amongst the meth makers in the backwoods. I think it's going to be a hell of a movie. I better bring kleenax.

I know Inception is supposed to be all that and a bag of chips but I'm OK to wait for that. I think it'll hold up just as well on the screen at home as it would in the theatre and maybe even better. After all, it's a lot of mind games and mind games play well anywhere. Heh. But yeah, I'd like to see that eventually.

The new Patricia Clarkson movie is out, Cairo Time, and I'd rather see her than most any other actress any day of the week. She is underrated as one of our finest leading ladies and that's a real shame. I saw the trailer for it and thought, wow...this looks a lot better than that "Eat, Pray, Love" movie which I have no intention of seeing. The book thing was bad enough. Yes, yes, yes....anyone who has the money to go to places they've never been before and see cultures that are unfamiliar are going to have epiphanies of all sorts. But in the real world where I live, you know, where one has to pay bills and never mind taking a sabbatical to India or China or whatnot...it smacks a little of Upper Class Superiority. Gah. No thanks.

But Cairo Time looks like one of those intricate, intimate movies where it's important to see what's not being said as well as what's being said. I know, it's a White Woman who is in a different land and culture and she explores and blah blah blah...but she's not there to gain Serenity or Awakening or whatnot. No, she's there because she's going to finally spend time with her workaholic husband. Or so she thinks.

At any rate, Patricia Clarkson is the lead actress and I have always found that watching her in any movie makes me happy. That plus she's a really nice lady in real life. That's always awesome.

I think I'll wait for Prince of Persia to come out on Netflix. Yes, I'm sure it would be better on the big screen but it's not one of my big Must See Movies. Of course, if the drive in has it as one of three movies playing, I'd be up for that.

The big movie that I'm waiting for is the last Harry Potter movie. Of course, they had to split it in two parts for which I'm ever grateful for. There's just too much to squeeze into one movie. But the first part is coming out here in August and I am SO excited!!! I saw the trailer and it looks wicked! Yae!!!

Did anyone see Emma Watson's new haircut? She looks absolutely gorgeous. She cut it pixie short and close to the head and it's back to her natural hair colour and she looks divine. I wonder what she's going to do now, now that filming has wrapped and that part of her life is done and that has got to be the oddest feeling....ten years of her life (half of her life, I believe) has been spent in the Harry Potter Universe. Wow. That's amazing.

The other big movie that I plan on seeing is Get Low with Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, and Bill Murray. From everything I've read, it's a great movie with the best actors and actress and a fine plotline. Robert Duvall plays a hermit like rich as Midas old man who lives, by choice, alone. He wants Bill Murray, who is the town's mortician, to set up a fake funeral for him. He wants to hear what the townsfolk would have to say to him if they thought he was dead. Sissy Spacek is his heart's love from way back when. Bill Murray's character agrees and the wheels are set in motion. It's a movie about human behavior and emotions and those are my favourite kinds of movies. I like a good action movie every now and then but mostly, movies that show how people tick and why they tick...those are the ones I really like.

Even Silence of the Lambs. I HATE horror movies but this was more a psychological thriller with some gore judiciously placed. Plus, it had Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. Please.

So, yes, money tree. Please shake a few dollars for me. I have some movies lined up to see.


K.

Steampunk!

So there I was, perusing the wedding photos of my seamstress when it occurred to me that the wedding would be awesome if it was done in Steampunk style.

Yeah, I know...Steampunk has been trending for a while and might be going over the cusp but I think it would be fun to do and my Awesome Guy is all for it.

So I've been looking over Steampunk wedding dresses and other types of clothes and thinking my thinks.

That plus a Steampunk wedding cake would be pretty cool.

With all of that, I've decided that I want the theme of the wedding to be Kickass Awesome! and to that end, I have a lot of friends who want to be part of the awesomeness.

I'm pretty happy about that.

It's pretty convenient that next year at CONvergence, the theme is Steampunk so I can look at the vendors and get even MORE ideas...although I have the feeling that we will probably have most everything pulled together by then. But we shall see.

In other news, I tore through the library books that I had gotten and now need to get back to the library to find some more finds. I think I'm going to meander over to the sewing aisle and see if they have any Steampunk patterns and ideas there...



K.