Recovery, and Other Creatures

Wow! Today I was able to raise my left arm up over my head without experiencing more than a little pain. It still wasn't very comfortable, and the muscle was a bit tight. It's amazing how quickly one's muscles can fall into disrepair.

I have a few scabs on my my shoulder and bicep area. It took me awhile to figure out they're scabs. It's difficult when everything is colored blue. Oh yes, and my skin is peeling quite a bit too. I left blue skin all over the bottom of the bathtub yesterday. Well, I cleaned up my smurf droppings and checked to see if anything else was ready to just fall off me.

All this is very natural and normal after getting a tattoo. What I'm wondering about, is the small pimples near my tattoo. I have them on my left breast right under the tattoo, and on my arm on the side of the tattoo. I have no idea what's causing these. Nikki thought that maybe my skin is allergic to the tattoo ink. But... I don't have any pimples on the tattoo itself. Then I thought maybe irritation from the bacitracin zinc ointment I used, dripping down from the tattoo. But wouldn't the tattooed area be irritated as well? Well it is possible that it has nothing to do with the tattoo, and merely coincidental that it just happens to be near it? In any case, I see my doctor tomorrow (probably my final visit before the move), so this is a good chance to have him look at it.

I've gotten a bunch of compliments on my tattoo. This one cashier at Wal-Mart really liked it, and he asked me a few questions about it. He seemed pretty impressed that it was my first tattoo and it took five hours to complete. One lady at Speedway (a gas station, for those who haven't heard of Speedway) was asking me, "Wow, does it hurt?" and "Where's the head?" I definitely want the head more defined.

Besides the tattoo stuff, we're so psyched to get out of here. A lot of our neighbors are simply people we can't stand. They walk past our window all the time, yelling at each other and starting fights. 18 days to go! Then they can beat the hell out of each other, and we'll be blissfully unaware.  ;)

Last week I made a mistake and missed Skylar's bus! She gets dropped off from preschool a half hour early on Wednesdays, and I could've sworn it was a Tuesday. The bus transportation called me and left me a message while I was out walking. I called them back and only got voicemail. I left them a message, asking them why so early, and that she's supposed to be dropped off at 11:30 am. No call back.

When I was almost home, Skylar's teacher called. "Today is Wednesday? Are you sure???" I told her I don't have a car, but I can walk there. It was about an hour's walk. When I got there, I asked them if they had a stroller or a wagon... something I could push or pull her in, at least part of the way. Her little legs just can't walk three miles or so! They didn't have one, but she said that she could take the next bus... onlyyyyy I can't go on the bus with her, and she would get home before I could walk there. Oy!

To make a long story short, they called a taxi and paid for it. I actually had enough money on me to pay for it, but they insisted. I felt like a heel for missing her bus and then showing up with no way to get her home. Man, I miss my car! (It was totalled in an accident about a year and a half ago.) So we made it home at around 1:30 PM, and I gave her a late lunch. She said she wanted to go to bed, so I obliged her. I laid down for a half hour as well. After walking two hours, and then another hour to get to her school, I was pretty tired. I must've walked about eight miles that day!

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Tattoo Pics in Progress

Here's the tattoo pics as promised in my last post, though I'm a day late again. With the exception of the photo on the left, these were taken while the tattoo was being done. We should've taken more, but hey, I go back on the 22nd for a touch-up. I want to get some better pics of Happy in action. (The tattoo is only 80 - 85% complete.) Since I wrote all about this in the previous entry, I figured I'd just put the pics up, with captions. Thanks for reading... and viewing.   :)

Right before the tattooing process had begun. You can see my birthmark, surrounded by inked-on flames, and the woman in silhouette.

Nikki's hand, which I held most vigorously during most of the process. She only seemed to mind when my nails dug into her flesh...

Here's my cyan bird of flame, about halfway complete. The tail and the right wing were done, as well as the silhouette and the phoenix's head. He's working on the body now, and next up comes the left wing, going over my shoulder.

I sweated bucketloads! The more it hurt, the more I sweat. Somehow I still managed to smile for the camera.

Here's my final rub-down. Notice how I'm kinda trying to get away from him. Wiping hurts so bad. This man = pain right here!

Yay! Done for today! That alone brought a smile to my face. But to see all that work come to fruition was priceless.

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I Got My Phoenix Tattoo!

Five hours of pain and several hundred dollars later, I'm witness to a beautiful blue phoenix tattoo on my left shoulder and upper arm! Then he tells me that he wants to touch it up on another day, which will take another hour and a half. That'll be free, at least. I was originally going to write about this last night, but I was in so much pain afterward that I popped a Vicodin, and it made me a bit queasy, so I just went to sleep. Anyway, let me begin at the beginning.

I mentioned in my last entry that I forgot my camera, and hoped I would remember it this time. Ummm... oops. Nikki had me stop at a Wal-Green's and get a disposable camera. I haven't gotten the pictures back from that yet, so I'll have to tide you over with pics taken at our box-ridden apartment on Tuesday, a day later.

We were almost at the tattoo place, and we got pulled over by a cop. I was going 55 in a 35? First of all, it's ridiculous to post a speed limit of 35 mph on a three-lane highway. Second of all, I don't think I was going that fast. But he gave us a break (I suppose) by writing the ticket as being only 5 miles over the limit. He left, I pulled out of the bank in which I had turned into to "pull over," and lo and behold. The tattoo parlor, Happy Tats, is right there. We almost made it! Grrrr!

While Nikki and I are waiting for me to be seated in "The Chair," two other people walk in. It seems they also have an appointment at 12 noon. It turned out that I was actually supposed to come next Monday, but they messed up and told me to come the same Monday as these two. Since my appointment was approximately five hours in length, and the other people would only take an hour and a half, we were asked to come back then. They did try to put off these folks for another time, but one of them was going to be out of town, yadda yadda yadda. So we hung out at Wendy's for a bit and then came back, and waited for another hour. I was finally seen at 2:30 PM, and after gabbing about the tattoo and figuring out just how I wanted it done, the actual tattooing began at 3 PM.

Wow, it hurt. A LOT. It hurt so much due to where he was working. The chest was excruciating. The inside of my arm (that soft part) was torture. The shoulder and outer arm hurt too, but the back was a breeze in comparison. I squeezed Nikki's hand until my hand got tired. Then I squeezed some more. Because of the tattoo being over my birthmark, he had to keep going over it again and again, because the color just wasn't taking. And because he was using a lot of blue, he had to keep wiping the area over and over since it smears. Wiping HURTS. BAD. All the nerve endings in the other areas that hadn't been touched for a few minutes just wake up and start screaming!

The plus side, other than my baby being there with me, was that Happy is a really nice guy. We had some nice conversation. And he played some really fine (read: heavy) music too, which helped to get my mind off the pain. I found it hard to talk during the tender spots, though. One syllable answers were all I could muster while I was feeling like my skin was being torn off my body.

He stopped the torture at 7:45 PM. To my credit, I didn't issue a single tear. A few whimpers, and some leg thrashing during some wiping, but that was all. Oh yes, I did tremble and have my teeth chatter when he was blazing over my chest. And I must've sweated a bucket-full. He told me to stand up, and then to come closer. He wiped me again, over the entire tattoo. YOW! Then he said he would finish this in two and a half weeks. He stopped before having the chest finished, since he knew I was in extreme agony from having that area worked on three times already. So I'll have another hour and a half of agony. Oh happy day.

We figured out an appointment time, and then he told me again to "come here." I did, reluctantly, and he smeared petroleum jelly all over it. Once more, excruciating pain. I started backing away and that made him laugh. I told him, "Right now, Happy equals pain. In a week or so, Happy will equal awesome dude, but as for now, you just equal pain." Nikki started laughing her ass off, but I was at least partly serious. I was ready to run out of there! But it was worth it.

Well... I hope so, actually. I'm not quite sure, but the red from the birthmark might be starting to show through the light blue colors of the tattoo. Not good! I hope it doesn't start looking like crap, with red showing through the light blue, and maybe even the darker blue. Maybe he could tattoo purple over the light blue? It would make the claws stand out more anyway. I want the head to stand out more also, but there's purple around it already. I do want the eye to be red.

Right now, my pain is quite bearable. I can reach my eye with my left arm, and hold it straight out to the side of me (like the silhouette in the tattoo). I still can't lift it over my head. Hopefully tomorrow. The inside of my arm is red and swollen, even four inches away from the tattoo. My back is fine. It stings when I wash it. The rest doesn't sting. It burns. Happy told me that I was nuts for getting this as my first tattoo. It was a really rough ride. But then, I wanted this birthmark covered up and done away with, once and for all. Hopefully it won't rear it's ugly head and ruin this awesome tattoo. Time can only tell.

Be sure to tune in tonight, to see photos of the tattoo in progress!

Oh, one other thing. If I had known how bad this sucker would hurt, for five damn hours, well I might've never gotten it done. Ignorance can be good for reaching one's goals... at least in my case.

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Tattoo Delayed! And a Promised Document

I went to Happy Tat's yesterday, but was turned away until Monday (Hey! That's tomorrow though!), since I got a sunburn the day before. I tried to explain to them that the birthmark itself is not burned, just the skin around it. The birthmark doesn't hurt. The birthmark won't peel. No, no... come back on Monday. I was relieved when they told me Monday, since when I first made the appointment, it was made for two weeks later.

Yes, stupid me got a sunburn. (That pic is NOT me, by the way! But I'll get a lot of hits from it, hehehe!) Well, I don't see it as completely my fault. I go walking almost every day. If it's not raining or cold out (seems the cold days are over), I'm walking. Michigan decided to be 80 degrees on Friday, and very sunny. NOT the typical weather here for the the end of April. But hey, I need my walk! And I had a lot of music I wanted to listen to on my iPod, which I have vowed never to listen to, except during my walks or during the trip down to Arizona. I didn't even wear a tank top. But I got burned on my lower arms and the center of my chest... the lower and right-most extremes of my birthmark. Sigh.

Some old man passed me on a little cart thing as I was walking. It was like one of those little vehicles you see in supermarkets, plugged into the wall. He must've had the off-road version, because he drove through the grass to get around me. That was interesting, and made me feel weird. I walk as fast as I can without going into a trot, and the old man passes me on this Wal-Mart cart like I was standing still. Hmmff!

The move is coming along. 26 days to go! I'm mp3-izing all my CDs, since so many in my collection were lost or damaged during my last move. I have a lot of cases without CD's, and a lot of CD's without cases. Some are missing both components, and only remain in my memory... if they're lucky.

Anyway, there are boxes all over. I stubbed my little toe on one of them earlier. Stubbing the little toe is just the worst. It had no defense against that mean old box. Big toe was laughing it's ass off. As if it has an ass to begin with!

You had to progress through all this rambling to get to this: The UpToDate document on transsexuality. I mentioned it in this post, and a few people wrote me to tell me they wanted to read the entire document. Well, here it is, in PDF glory. My objection to said writing is in that beforementioned post. The underlines and little notes were written by my doctor. I'll see him next week so he can look at my tattoo, and also hopefully get me a prescription for 60 or 90 days, so that I have as many HRT-related pills as possible, to maybe last me until I get a job with health insurance. Somehow I doubt that Arizona has state or county-funded programs like Macomb Care Connect.

So here's the link: UpToDate Treatment of Transsexualism

So now I'm psyched for tomorrow. I hope the sunburn is gone, as they predicted. He doesn't live close by at all, and Nikki is taking off work so I could use the car to get there. She loves me.  :D  I forgot to bring my camera yesterday, so hopefully I'll remember it tomorrow. I want to get some pics of the tattoo in progress. All five hours of it! If it doesn't get delayed again, I'll have a post up tomorrow night with the pics. Cheers!

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The way to a man's heart...

[ Above & Beyond Pres. OceanLab - Lonely Girl ]

hello kids,
my fault if my last blog was hella weird and awkward for some of ya'll. but n e hu, if ya'll don't know by now Juls 21st bday has just passed recently on the 25th of April. nigga is finally 21 and don't need me to copp the alcohol anymore. haha.... he's pretty siked! (: so on his birthday he had planned to go Go-Karting with just his boys, as i 'pretty up' for him for dinner. i had made reservations at this Thai Restaurant - Rin's Thai Restaurant in Noe Valley for his bday with everyone else. so i wasn't bout to sit around home all day and wait til dinner, i thot i bake him a birthday cake and some cupcakes for his friends just a THANK YOU for comin thru to celebrate Jul's birthday. so here is the process of the baking. nothing means more than cooking for your love on the reals. its the way to a man's heart mang, thru their tum tums :D Now I aint no chef or cook, so i used the pre-mixed batters for the cake & cupcakes (lol). I made a devils food chocolate cake with strawberries (his favorite) and Red Velvet cupcakes.

First off I copp'd some fresher than freshhhh strawberries then rinsed under cold water. Now it's time to slice them Vertically down the membrane. When the strawberries look as if its almost a HEART its perfect. I had already baked the cake in a 9inch round pan that's non-stick (best to use nonstick to prevent any breaking to the cake plus less of the pain having to scrub yo shit afterwards). Now get a piece of wax paper pop that baby upside down onto the wax paper and let cool in fridge (if you're in a rush like me) for a good 15 minutes. Now take it out and leave it upside down, get a cake knife and slice it in half horizontally across so you have two layers and cream the middle (bottom layer only). Now with those Heart shaped strawberries slice them into semi-thin slices and place them on that layer. Btw, i just used canned frosting; but i use the EXTRA FLUFFY so its lighter and easier to spread, ya feel me? oh yes, the white chocolate chips are used for the red velvet cupcakes to give it a sweeter kick, if ya'll never had red velvet;its originally not that sweet by itself. so i thot i popped some white chocolate chips into each cupcake for a little BOOST of sweetness. i didn't end up using the sprinkles for the cupcakes, i thot its too kiddy and not as yummy when theres a crunch to the cupcakes, PERSONALLY i didn't want them on it this time. lol. oh yes, make sure u have cupcake cups in handy, cuz this occasion is individual cupcakes to each person to have; it's much more convenient when its in a paper cup. Alright as i was saying, put the top layer back on; layered on top of the spread like so... then be sure to spread the frosting all over the cake. as i was doing all this Gizmo was chillin in the dining room just lying there wondering wtf i was doing running around the kitchen left and right. haha.... now back to frosting. so i finished frosting the rest of the cake. then the best part for me personally is DECORATING this bitch with TLC mang.so i placed a couple strawberries around the rim of the cake and i had melted some Ghiradelli chocolate chips and drizzled some designs over the cake by doing so i just used a regular fork. as you can see, i had many left over strawberries there in the corner because i originally WANTED to place one sliced heart strawberry on top of each cupcake.but i thot about it, it wont make sense to do so cuz the tastes dont mix. strawberries, the berry flavor on a red velvet cake mix. no no. so i had left over strawberries for thee familia to munch on. hahha... Now... on to the cupcakes.so with the batter i fit 12 at a time to bake. oh yes! be sure to have TOOTH PICKS in hand so u can poke in the center of the cup cakes or cakes to check if its ready.usually they are ready when barely any slobber from the mix stain the pick. now they are ready to be baked! after they're done, take them out and place on top of a wax paper (so its a easy clean-up) and let cool BEFORE YOU START FROSTING kids!be sure to wear oven mitts while handling the non-stick cupcake pan that just hopped out of the oven, PLEASE DONT BURN YOURSELF!after they're cooled off you can feel free and frost them, but u can also skip this step if you don't prefer frosting on your cupcakers.when i had ran out to copp them strawberries at Safeway for the cake, i also grabbed myself two GIANT PINK DONUT boxes in the bakery section, they should be right by the donuts. THEY'RE FREE! so ya'll know where to get them if ya'll need'em! (:so after baking i had to wrap his gifts real quick before i started to get ready. yea he likes Hennessy as you can tell. lol, so i grabbed a smaller bottle for HIMSELF to drink; but of course his nice self shared with his boys.


now on to dinner, we ate at Rin's Thai Food Restaurant; i had yelped this place. the food here is pretty good and the service was not bad either. feel free to check out their YELP review by clicking on the name link.so on to opening gifts. here he is opening a gift from our homegirl Griselda. now my gifts. i got him a 2 set of Yoshi Blade, if you guys don't know what it is. please go look at their infomercial. lol. he seemed to really like his gift. he was like 'oooh! i cant wait to try these out!'then perfect timing they bring out his birthday cake and we all sang him happy birthday :D after dinner we decided to go bar hopping down on Broadway street. we went to our first TITTY BAR at Condor on broadway. the girls werent all that hot, but this one chick was CHEEKIN' (aka she has booty), so my homegirl manda&i bought him a PRIVATE VIP LAPDANCE from her. her name was Isas, i'm pretty sure it's her stripper name. she was like a punk rocker type chick, tatted up and everythang; she was really friendly. she was the prettiest one there. lol. then we went over to next door to our first STRIP CLUB. lol. then went back to homie Omar's place and just kicked it and made thee bf drink some more til he was GONNNNNNNE. hahha....i think he had a GREAT time. what'chall think? heh. alright, until the next blog guys & girls. i hope ya'll have a great weekend! toodles! *deuce deuce*

- LOVEVA

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