Unpacking, Neighbors, & More Health

Hey guys! We finally did less stuff to talk about, so it should make for a pretty short post (edit: it ended up not being a very short post... sorry). I'm decompressing from the long weekend we've had.

Movers & Unpacking
On Friday the movers came to deliver our things. They arrived around 8:45am and they got to work. The three guys took about 4.5 hours to unload everything and then Patrick and I started unpacking.

Until today, either one or both of us were unpacking at one point or another except for when we slept. I'll admit that Patrick did a LOT more than I did. I have been feeling like crap all weekend, which I'll touch on in a minute.

As of right now we have all but four boxes unpacked. We've stopped for meals and to go out and grab things we might need (the big thing for us has been plastic bins-- we have so much more storage here that we literally need storage for our storage because otherwise everything is just kind of falling out everywhere). Yesterday, I took a nap while Patrick took a break.

The other really difficult thing has been that until yesterday, it has been SO HOT. We had some kind of heat wave here and Thursday-Saturday we had high 80's temperatures (record temps for this area) and of course, being on the third floor with apparently no cross-breeze no matter how many windows and doors we had open, we were slowly evaporating. It finally cooled down on Sunday and we were able to move around without feeling like death was upon us. Today, it is overcast and by 9am we had closed all of the windows because we were finally cold. I'm even wearing my favorite slippers to keep my feet warm :)

Apartments & Neighbors
Patrick and I are convinced that the apartment is eating things. Maybe we are still delirious from the recent heat and exertion, but I have lost two plastic storage bins and Patrick has lost a vape tank, an orange box cutter, a box of alcohol wrapped in clothing, and now a giant rubber band that we were using to keep the laundry closet shut so the cats wouldn't get in there. Are we built on ancient burial grounds? I don't know what's going on, but I know I'm not going crazy. I've counted at least ten times. I am missing two plastic storage bins.

Our neighbors are... I have no words to describe them. Let me just tell you what has happened.

I had a package arrive last Friday (the 4th). We weren't arriving until the 5th, and the UPS email told Patrick that the package had been delivered to our door step, so we immediately emailed the apartments and asked them to please check their office for the package just in case, so we could know if it was actually at the door because we were worried about it being taken. The office girls checked and it wasn't there, in our mail box, or at our door step-- mind you, it couldn't have taken more than hour from when we received the email from UPS until we got an email back from the leasing office. So we took out a complaint with UPS and one with the store we purchased the item from and waited to hear back from them. When UPS finally got back with us, they said that they wouldn't do anything because the package was delivered, so we were waiting to hear back from the shipper. Thursday night (I think), we went out to get groceries. When we were leaving, we saw our across-the-hall-neighbor coming out of her apartment. I smiled at her and we went downstairs, but I thought it was weird that she didn't smile back but instead looked a little like she had seen a ghost. When Patrick and I came home, the package was on our door step and the door of the woman's apartment was ajar. The doorjamb was visible but you couldn't see inside of the apartment (and the lights were off), and I thought that was super sketchy. I tried to reason with it and convince myself that she was just holding on to the package because she didn't want someone else to steal it and then she waited to see us before she returned it. But why not leave a note? Why not give it to us herself? Why was her door open when we came home? Why was she so freaked out when she saw us? I'm not buying it and the whole situation is not settling with me at all, nor with Patrick. Unrelated to the package incident, Saturday at like 9am I had to go over there and bang on the door to get someone to answer it so I could ask them to please turn their music down a notch because we could literally feel the bass in our floor. I know it was Saturday and I know it was 9am, but I could feel it in our living room, which is at least 35, maybe even 40, feet away from their front door and across a cement stairwell. Unacceptable.

Health
My cysts started to get better the day after I went in for my follow-up and I have been searching for a pharmacy that isn't going to charge me over $100 for a prescription that I know Meijer in Michigan would fill for free. Man, I miss Meijer. I have a little while before I need the prescriptions filled, so I can keep searching. The unpacking is not helping, though. I am supposed to be keeping from moving my arms as much as possible, but we need to unpack. I have developed another cyst lower down on my armpit (I think from the stress and the strain), but it's not that bad and I can definitely handle it. I have a topical antibiotic gel that I've been applying to the area as directed but it has been making my skin so sensitive. A lot of itching and burning, which I'm going to be emailing the clinic about.

The heat definitely took its toll on both of us and I hardly did anything on Saturday, although I did help Patrick take some boxes down to the garage and I tripped over some other boxes and fell. I twisted my ankle and whacked it on the side of one of the boxes and I also landed really hard on my knee, and then I had a panic attack. They haven't been too sore until last night (weird, right?), when they were suddenly too tender to touch (I found this out by trying to cross my ankles), and while I was trying to fall asleep last night I kept having a throbbing pain behind my knee cap. It's possibly because I've been trying to cut down on the ibuprofen I've been taking because the pain from the cysts has been less, so I didn't notice the pain until the ibuprofen was out of my system.

On Sunday I took a nap and woke up to the worst allergy attack I've had in a long time, which is strange because before my nap I hadn't done much unpacking and there wasn't much dust (or, well, no more than usual). I seriously sneezed at least 30 times within only a couple of hours, my throat was itching like crazy, and it took a few hours for the swelling in my sinuses to go down. I don't want to jinx it by actually voicing my thoughts, but I'm hoping that this is just allergies and not something else from the drastic changes in weather and temperature, if you catch my drift.

So that's all so far! Nothing super exciting has happened and yet and Patrick works during the day all this week, but we'll see about this weekend. My task for today is to take a bunch of boxes down to the garage for Patrick while he teaches and probably take a nap :)

Exploring Beaverton and Making Friends!

Hey everyone! I know I just posted yesterday but I didn't want to make one giant long post about my health and exploring, so I split it up and decided to post the health update first. I know both posts are really long and I'm sorry about that. I'm going to try my best to update more often so the posts aren't as long but I don't want to over-saturate the blog.

Health Re-Update:
I went back to the clinic for a follow-up yesterday (Wednesday). During the week, Tina (my doctor) did a lot of research for me and we decided on the following:

• I'll be on a two to three month regimen of Doxycycline to temper the cysts and prevent new ones.
• I'll be going on Yaz birth control to suppress the androgens* in my body, which is the hormone that causes the flare-ups. I've had good results with Yaz before so hopefully it won't mess with my hormones too much, because I've been off of oral birth control for 4-5 months to try to let my body sort itself out (I was having a lot of hormone issues).
• My right armpit got much, much better since Sunday and I have almost full range of motion. However, my left armpit has gotten a lot worse. We've sent in a culture to see if that infection is more serious and requires different antibiotics. We'll reassess in a few days' time when the results come back.
• If my cysts clear up sooner than later, I'll probably be able to stop taking the antibiotics and just stay on the birth control to keep the HS in check. I'm still trying to find a pharmacy that won't drown me with prescription costs, but I have a little bit of time before I need either of the scripts filled.

*I previously said progesterone but I've discovered that I was incorrect.

Now, here's another long blog about exploring Beaverton :)

So the more we explore, the more I fall in love with Beaverton and Oregon in general. I'm so excited and grateful about this opportunity and I'm finding that Oregon seems to be the perfect mix of Michigan and California, which means that it has things that both Patrick and I really like. For example, the food here is diverse. If you want Thai food, we only need to walk about a block. But if I want Zoup-- my favorite soup restaurant chain that I ate almost every single day while I was still in college in Michigan-- you can find that, too (there were none in California and it broke my heart). There are a lot more high end options if you look for them, especially in Portland itself, but it's really nice to find stuff that we are both excited to try when we go out to eat. The weather is also making us both very happy, and we're close enough to the ocean (about two hours, give or take) that it doesn't make Patrick all itchy and land-locked.

We're also in a really great area. There is a Target about three miles away but on the way there you see about 60% trees and 40% houses or developments, instead of seeing almost 100% man-made things like you do in California. Anywhere you go, it's a beautiful drive and we have been driving with the windows down every single time. Fresh air... It's sad that we didn't have it for thirteen months while we lived in Tracy.

Sunday:

• Went to urgent care
• Took a long nap, woke up feeling a LOT better
• Went to a local mall to explore
• Went to dinner at Patrick's friend Dennis and his girlfriend Gina's place. Many thanks to the two of them for having us over and extra thanks to Dennis for cooking a fantastic home made meal!

Monday:

• Woke up and Patrick had left to go explore some more
• Patrick came back, we went to a few stores including the "baby" Powell's books. If you read my post from July that included a bit about Powell's of Portland, you'll know that Powell's is a gigantic book store in Portland itself. It turns out that there's a smaller, though also very well-stocked, Powell's in Beaverton as well
• Also went to a gigantic craft store in that same shopping center (I'd describe it as "Joann's, Michael's, and Hobby Lobby combined") and also a huge store JUST FOR ORGANIZATION AND STORAGE, which is called Storables
• Finally got to go to the thrift store (albeit briefly) and I got a couple of flannel shirts
• Went Patrick's friend Sam and his wife Lisa's for dinner. Thank you SO MUCH Sam and Lisa for inviting us into your home and many thanks to Lisa for cooking us a delicious dinner! We had a fantastic time!

Tuesday: 

• We had a big adventure and went to Ikea to buy the things we budgeted for: two bar stools, a dining room table with two chairs (which doubles as a desk for me to craft/write/sew/etc), a light fixture for the breakfast bar, and a few other very small items
• We spent the rest of the day putting together all of the items

Wednesday:

• I went out on my own for the first time! I have pretty bad anxiety about driving in general so this is a really big deal for me. I went to the Dollar Tree to get a couple of things (hand soap, a table cloth, and a few Halloween decorations). Patrick taught until about 3pm.
• In the evening, Patrick and I went back to the clinic (different clinic, same provider) for a follow up (which I've written about above) and we went to a really delicious southern restaurant for dinner called Miss Delta. 

Thursday:

• Patrick taught until about 3pm.
• While Patrick was working, I ventured out to Target by myself. It was a successful trip.
• We went to the Dutch Store after work and got some delicious Dutch cheese and a few Dutch snacks. 
• My HS is doing much better today and I almost didn't need to take any ibuprofen. 

So that's it up until just now! Tomorrow the moving company will be delivering our stuff and we'll probably be unpacking and organizing all weekend. I'll continue to update every so often, hopefully more often so that these blogs aren't so darn long from now on. Sorry! 

Health Update/ Hidradenitis Suppurativia

Hey everyone!

Today's topic is one that's very personal to me, a little embarrassing because of the misconceptions, and it's what I'm dealing with right now. In my last blog I mentioned that I might do a health update. I wrote one, but it turns out that I wrote the bulk of this blog a long time ago when I was thinking about doing an entire post about the topic, so I figure that now is as good a time as any. Here we go.

I have a disease called Hidradenitis Suppurativa. What this disease is is actually a debate, but it is basically a chronic cyst issue. There isn't a whole lot of research on what causes it and there are very few proven treatment methods or methods of prevention. However, I can tell you what it is in its simplest form and why it's so awful.

At any given time, I probably have a cyst on my body. It's not a cyst like you would think it is-- it is not a tumor that can be cut out. Basically what they are are tiny-- or large, depending on what your body has in store for you-- boils that can occur all over the body, especially in high-friction areas or folded areas. The most frequent places for these cysts to occur are in the armpits, at the top of the tailbone, under the breasts, or on the groin area. These are not hard rules, however, and they can occur anywhere. They also tunnel beneath the skin, so multiple cysts can be connected by tunnels and these tunnels can scar.

Let me preface this with the following statement: These cysts are not caused by lack of hygiene. They are not caused by the foods you eat. There is a debate of whether they are caused by an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks itself-- and there is often evidence to support this, as many HS sufferers also battle rheumatoid arthritis even though all tests come back negative for RH, like they did for me-- or an issue with how the body produces and expels its natural oils. There is little that can be done other than taking a low dose of antibiotics for a very long period of time or simply letting the boils do what they do and living with it. It is incredibly painful and often debilitating to the point where, depending on where they develop, a person can no longer move a certain part of their body because the pain is too much. Sometimes the cysts have to be lanced open and drained or corticosteroid shots are administered directly into the cysts.

My first cyst occurred in my left ear lobe. It was truly terrifying and I had no idea what was going on. I was at a friend's house watching a movie in their basement, and my ear had been in pain for days. It was red, hot, swollen, and I couldn't touch it. Halfway through the movie, I got up to go to the bathroom to check on my ear and found that the back of my ear had sort of split open and it was draining. Thankfully I don't have any scarring there, but when I got home I mentioned it to my mother and she told me that sometimes my dad got those, and he would just put a hot compress on them and it wasn't a problem after a few days. I didn't think to associate it with genetics at the time, but now I know that it is definitely something that can be passed down.

Since then, I've had them on my back, waistline, thighs, in between my eyebrows, on my chin, in my armpits, on the top of my tailbone, on my nose, and a few other places. I'd have to say that the worst was on my tailbone. Because that one takes you to your own special little place in what feels like hell, it even gets its own special name: pilonidal cyst. I had to go the dermatologist and have it lanced (i.e. they stuck needles in a very painful, inflamed part of my body to "numb" the area-- which wasn't very numb when they started squeezing the heck out of it-- and then they cut the area open with a scalpel to drain it). I had to take a lot of time off of work because I simply could not walk, lay down, stand, or sit. Everything was excruciating. The cyst occurred a second time almost immediately and thankfully drained by itself and never reoccurred, but I do have a lot of scarring from that one that I'm very self conscious about. I live every single day in fear that it will come back because I was told that if it ever came back a third time, I would have to have surgery to remove the glands from that area. Don't make the mistake I did and look up "pilonidal cyst surgery," because even if you've never had one you'll probably be paranoid that you'll develop one after seeing that.

The point here is that there is so little information about the disease and so few people talk about it because it is taboo. No one wants to tell someone else that they basically have an infected zit somewhere (possibly very personal) on their body and it's messing with their life. People make all sorts of assumptions about the disease and it makes it extremely hard to talk about, even though I've known at least two other people with the disease for completely unknown reasons.

Fast forward to two weeks ago and I got a cyst under my right armpit, which quickly tunneled under the skin and created several more cysts. I ended up with 5-6 cysts in my right armpit, plus I had started to develop them in my left armpit and those tunneled, creating about three of them. I had been having trouble moving my arms and sleeping since last week, but on Sunday I woke up in the worst pain any cyst has ever given me (besides in 2012), and insurance or no insurance I had Patrick take me to urgent care because I was ready to have someone slice them open. Unfortunately (or fortunately? I'm not sure) there was no clear place to cut and the cysts got to stay while we figured out a different way to treat them.

Since then, I've been on antibiotics (oral and topical) and I've been on a hefty amount of ibuprofen (more than I care to admit because I'm probably destroying my kidneys). To say it's been hell is an understatement. I can't clasp a bra behind my back my myself, I can't lift my arms past shoulder height, I can't shave my armpits, and I can't carry a purse or a bag unless it's for a short distance. My right armpit, which was the worse one when I went in to urgent care, is so much less painful than when I went in that I can't even believe it. My left armpit, on the other hand, seems to be getting worse and I've been having sharp pains and there is a strange redness spreading down my bicep from my armpit. Thankfully I have a follow up with the same clinic today after Patrick is done with work so we will see what the heck is up with that very shortly.

I think the best thing that has happened in all of this is that I finally have an official diagnosis, because I always run into those people who say "well, has a doctor diagnosed it?" and I'm honest and say "well, no" and then they discount any pain or suffering I'm in because someone with a degree hasn't confirmed that yes, I have every single symptom of the condition that I've been suffering from for years.

The crappy part is that even though I have a diagnosis... There's really no way to treat the condition. I've heard that turmeric can help, so I've been taking capsules of that but I have no idea if it's having any effect, and I use Hibiclens to wash the areas that I most often get the cysts, but they still persist. Antibiotics don't always help (although thankfully they seem to be helping in this case) and there are no preventative measures you can take to completely stop getting the cysts that have been proven to work other than surgery (which really butchers the body and includes a lot of skin grafting). I know that I'm fortunate and that my condition isn't nearly as bad as some out there and I'm lucky enough to have avoided surgery and have mostly avoided doctors up until this point, but that doesn't mean my suffering isn't real and it doesn't absolutely suck.

My hope is that I can get my hormones under control (they have been extremely imbalanced lately and I've been trying to get them to balance out, which is what I suspect caused this flare up) and that I won't have to worry about them too often anymore.

Anyway, that's what's up with my health right now and I'm just dealing with the problem until it goes away. Otherwise, I've just been dealing with more of the usual stuff, nothing terrible. I hope everyone (if anyone is reading this at all) is doing well and they never have to suffer through a condition like this one.

Last Day in California, First Day in Oregon, and the Trip Between the Two

Hey everyone!

I don't know why it struck me just now to write a blog, but here we go! I decided that I would let everyone know how we're settling in Oregon the the first few days or weeks, depending on what develops in that time. Lots of my friends on Facebook have liked my statuses regarding our move and our trip, so I figured at least one of you is probably interested (it's probably just my grandma, but that's okay-- hi grandma!).

So first let me recap the last few days/weeks.

Patrick was out of town in New Jersey from August 23 until September 2, and our movers were coming on September 4, so I had a LOT to do. I wanted to make sure that I did as much as possible before Patrick came home because I knew he would be stressed out. I sacrificed my lower back for the job, but I finished everything that I wanted to finish, including but not limited to packing the rest of the kitchen, my bathroom, the various odds and ends throughout the house, all of the art that we had left on the walls. I also finished removing the nails/screws so I could putty over them and reorganizing the boxes in Patrick's office (lots of books, clothes, and those plastic three-drawer cart things that he has packed full of random things *coughpackratcough*), and finally, meticulously and cautiously individually wrapping around 30 bottles of wine. I got it all done-- and then some-- and when Patrick came home he was pleasantly surprised at how little we had to do until the night before the movers came on the 4th. (By the way, a huge thank you and big hugs to Mandy, who went out of her way to purchase bubble wrap for me and come over, one-year-old in tow, to help me pack up the heavier art pieces and move the heavier things out of the office. If not for her, I would have absolutely had back spasms the next day.)

THANK GOODNESS FOR MOVERS. They came at 9AM on the 4th and were done packing in under three hours, so all we had left to do was wait. We organized everything we were going to take with us, I bathed both cats so they would be clean and worn out for the ten hour drive, and after a long nap, we left around 10pm. By the time we stopped at Brook and Mandy's to say goodbye and dropped off the modem at Xfinity, it was around midnight and we started our trip.

The trip went excellent, to say the least. We were thankfully able to stuff every last thing we had planned on taking into the car and were still able to 100% see out of the back window and nothing was on top of or under the cats, who slept 95% of the trip and didn't have a single accident or get sick the entire ride. To say I'm proud of them, and us, is a total understatement.

We rolled in to Beaverton around 9:30AM, however our apartment complex's front office doesn't open until 10am, so we had a little bit of time to kill. We stopped at Xfinity to pick up our modem and grabbed a couple of things from Rite Aid and ended up arriving at the apartment complex at 10am on the dot.

Let it be known that the very first thing we did was lock our car in the garage with the garage door opener inside it, because we have a lot of common sense, don't you know?

We unpacked the car, got the cats settled in, went to lunch with our friend Dennis, went to Target for some essentials and Office Depot because Patrick needed a desk chair (his broke a few months back and he has been using my desk chair, which I need but also is really low quality and isn't good for him to be sitting on while he teaches all day-- plus, we let the movers take it and he teaches two days in a row before they get here and he can't sit on the floor for that), and then I had a nap before dinner.

Now that you all know what we've been doing, I'l let you know how we're feeling and how we like it so far.

Obviously, we're both exhausted. We haven't slept regularly in many days and now we'll be sleeping on an air mattress (thank goodness for Gina and Dennis, who loaned it to us-- we were honestly planning on sleeping on the floor), but we're glad that we are finally here and most of our anxiety is lifted.

Patrick was excited on the way up here because that's just how he is, but I felt differently. When I'm having a lot of emotions, I shut down completely so I don't feel any of them: this is called dissociation. This often happens when you're driving a vehicle-- you pretty much don't notice the road passing around you and your mind wanders until you reach your destination. Dissociation is my go-to coping mechanism for every scenario in my life that I feel I cannot emotionally handle. So yes, I am internally thrilled about this move, but I shut down all emotion because I'm so sad about leaving our friends behind (I did the same thing when I left Michigan, which is why I wasn't a mess then, either). I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that I didn't shed a single tear about it this entire time, when usually I'm very emotional. I know it's not healthy, but it's how I cope with big life changes.

Now that we're here, I'm still ignoring the fact that we have moved away from our friends, but I am truly so ecstatic that we're here. First of all, the weather is right up my alley and I'm soaking it all in. I was laying on the floor earlier today, relaxing after moving everything up two flights of stairs (we're on the third floor), and I heard pat pat pat. I thought it was one of the cats eating from their food bowl until it started to get more steady. When I looked outside, I started crying because it was raining and I love rain so much. Next to my family and friends, rain (and weather in general, but especially rain) is the thing I miss most about Michigan.

It's also really chilly right now, especially when it's raining. We only packed summer clothing and we're both pretty cool right now, so we'll be going to the thrift store to pick up a coat and maybe a long sleeved shirt or two soon. I keep saying that when it finally snows, I'm going to lay outside naked and let the cold freeze me to death because I have missed it so much. I'm only exaggerating a liiiiiiittle bit. The worst part about living in Tracy was that it was so hot that you literally couldn't leave the house at certain times of the day. Today, we walked to dinner and did it with great enthusiasm. There is something so energizing about being able to do any sort of physical activity and not want to keel over and die after only a minute or two.

In regards to our apartment-- we LOVE IT.

In our old apartment, we could hear the people next door to us snoring through the walls. Here, the neighbors behind us have a young baby (probably around 1 or so) and we haven't heard a peep out of them. They've been home all weekend. In fact, we can't hear any of our neighbors.

The area we're in is actually really nice and we are in the back corner of our apartment complex so we don't get a lot of traffic or noise in general. We especially can't hear people running around outside (obviously because we're on the third floor), but even so, the people we do hear are very quiet and aren't shouting. We even live near lots of executive areas that have random walking trails on them and beautiful landscaping just for people to walk through, which we're excited about.

The people we've encountered so far have all been fantastic. There's something to be said about the phrase "Keep Portland Weird". I know we're not in Portland (we're about 20 minutes away), but this whole area is so chill and accepting. No one cares what you look like or how many piercings or tattoos you have or what color your hair is or if your clothes aren't their taste-- they care about who you are as a person. We walked through Target yesterday and I made an offhand comment about how much laughter I've heard so far, and it's true. The people here are genuinely happy and friendly. They don't drive like maniacs (and they use hand gestures to thank you for letting them go, like polite people do!) and they even say please, thank you, and excuse me. It's a startling difference from the Bay Area.

Our apartment is so roomy and so well laid out. We're excited to get our belongings and start nesting in it. We also have so much storage that I can't even think up an item, or group of items, big enough to fill all of the space that we have just for storage-- on our patio, in our garage, in our apartment.

And lastly, because our apartments are only about 1.5 years old, we're the second tenants to live in our specific unit. It also means that everything is still basically brand new. We have high end appliances and really nice carpet... It's just thrilling. Our apartment still has the "new carpet" smell, and we even have regular blinds instead of mini-blinds, which is AWESOME.

Today we were supposed to go to the thrift store which we had to cancel so that we could take me to urgent care (I'll probably do a health update soon), but Patrick did make it to Frye's Electronics and Bed Bath and Beyond for a few things that we've been needing while I napped (health issues = very little sleep = exhausted Brook). I'll continue to keep you all updated on the happenings with us. Have a gold star if you've actually read all of this-- I know it was a very long update!

The D23 Expo in Anaheim!

Hey everyone! We're out of town right now and we've just done something pretty cool that I'm so excited to share with you all. 

Just before Patrick and I have our big move, we had a trip booked months and months in advance to attend the D23 Expo in Anaheim! For those who don't know, D23 is a Disney membership fan club. You pay annual dues and for that members get extra perks such as discounted tickets to the Expo, exclusive merchandise in the parks and online, sneak peaks of things coming up, a monthly newsletter, etc. 

This year, we decided to go to the D23 Expo! The Expo runs from Friday through Sunday and has all sorts of stuff: cosplayers (basically regular people like you and me who either purchase or make their own costumes for things such as conventions and dress as characters and sometimes invent original characters and outfits), exclusive D23 merchandise, panels with actors and actresses from current shows that you can view, exclusive sneak peak trailers, small museum-esque exhibits, entire displays where you can see what is coming out in the next few months/years, artist booths, antique and collectors items vendors, Disney merchandise mini "stores", photo-ops with actors and actresses, mini concerts, celebrity appearances, and more! 

While I was more interested in being comfortable than fashionable (such is my life), Patrick decided that this year he wanted to go as Anger from Inside Out (very fitting, isn't it?), which required painting his face and arms red. We got ready, walked to the convention center, arrived around 9:30am, and waited in line until around 10:00am. It was a horrible, agonizing 30 minutes in the sun-- by the time we got in, my hands were so swollen from the heat and standing still that I could not get my wedding ring off for almost three hours, and at its worst point, my finger was turning red and I was moments away from a panic attack all morning because I was afraid I'd have to have my ring cut off. Thankfully once we got inside it was very cool and we were able to walk around and re-distribute the fluid in our bodies so I didn't have to have my ring or my finger cut off (but I did need a band aid for a blister on my heel at one point)!

We made the decision months ago when we bought our tickets that we would only go on Saturday, which we are glad we did since this was our first convention. The Expo was enormous! It took us three separate "trips" (with breaks for resting and food in between) to get through the entire convention.

Anger from Inside Out

(Isn't that a nice tie? I added the red triangles on that tie at 10pm with craft paint, a pen, a brochure, and a makeup brush)

You can see my Marvel Comics backpack (which I bought at Wal Mart) here which I brought to go with my Iron Man dress (which I bought in Disneyland). 

The cast of Girl Meets World! Patrick mostly took photos of Ben Savage for me (I was too short to take the pictures above the crowd) because I'm more of a BMW fan than a GMW fan, simply because I am currently re-watching BMW so that I can begin watching GMW, so I don't know the newer characters as well.

Christy Carlson Romano (Ren from Even Stevens). At the table next to her we also saw Sean Astin (Mikey from The Goonies, Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings, etc). I desperately wanted to meet him but the line was hours long so I shuffled away with a little bit of sadness (The Goonies is one of my two favorite movies and I actually have a LOTR tattoo, obviously because I also love those movies so much).

The highlight of my day-- I got to meet Richard, aka Aurora, a cross playing cosplayer, freelance makeup artist, and costume designer that I follow on Tumblr! I was so excited about this-- I love meeting Tumblr users in real life, as you can see from this post where I met Tim! When I saw that Richard was going to be there, I definitely had my eye out, and thankfully we got to meet him! 

Wall-E!

Disgust (Victoria), Sadness (Bobbie), and Anger (Patrick). I considered going as Bing Bong but I didn't have enough time to get the costume together by the time I had the idea to do it-- maybe next year!

The merchandise we bought! I'm a little bit in love with the purse (it's made of seat belts and the colored bits are prints of vintage Disneyland ride tickets)

Anger picking Yoda's nose.

We loved this Crock Pot, but it isn't in production yet! The creators of it are trying to get Pixar and Crock Pot to collaborate and release this item. If you love is as much as Patrick and I do, use the hashtags #Pixar and #CrockPot (separate tags) together on the same post on any public social media on the internet so the companies see it and know that there are people interested in purchasing it!

Cinderella's Lego Slipper

That's my secret... I'm always angry. 

Going off on a little bit of a tangent here, I just want to express how frustrating it is to be a female who loves The Hulk. Every single item that I own with JUST Hulk on it is a men's item because almost every single women's item with The Hulk on it doesn't even really have The Hulk-- they all have She-Hulk. Any women's items with The Incredible Hulk on them that I've found either feature all of the Avengers or are online where I can't try them on! It is the most frustrating thing! The Hulk is my favorite Marvel character (and favorite super hero, for that matter) and it breaks my heart that-- even though I love my cozy, oversized men's t shirts-- I can't have anything with my favorite character on it simply because The Hulk isn't "for girls"... but She-Hulk is. 

Anger, too, is always angry.

Wreck It Ralph!

An actual playable Fix It Felix arcade game

Winning Fix It Felix

One of the most unique and hilarious cosplays we saw all day, a tour guide and a tourist on The Jungle Cruise (complete with boat on wheels!)

Lego Buzz Lightyear!

Lego Woody!

Who's your friend who likes to play?

This is one of the clay figures that they used to animate Bing Bong from Inside Out (probably my favorite Disney character aside from The Hulk, who I put in a completely separate category because he is Marvel before he is Disney)

A Pizza Planet truck! I always wish that they would put an actual Pizza Planet arcade/pizza place in Disneyland.

There was a huge wall with all of the D23 Gold and Silver members names' printed on it (in alphabetical order, thankfully), so we took a photo of Patrick's.

Though there is a lot that I didn't highlight because I simply didn't find it relevant to me, Patrick feels that I should include that there other cool things there such as signings with Dick Van Dyke and Ed Asner. There were also announcements during the convention that gave us new information. For example, parts of Tomorrowland are going to be re-done with a Star Wars theme and they let us know that Orlando Bloom will be in the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Ellen Degeneres also made an appearance after we had already left, showcasing the long-awaited Finding Dory movie. 

The D23 Expo was so amazing and we saw so much cool stuff that we could otherwise never have seen anywhere else. We look forward to doing it again in the future (hopefully with more comfortable shoes this time!). We spent Friday in Disneyland since it will be my last time going for a while since we are moving out of state, we spent Saturday at the Expo, and Sunday will be spent in Downtown Disney for leisurely shopping and probably lunch. Afterwards, we will be heading to Pasadena (about a 40-45 minute drive from Anaheim) until Thursday while Patrick is working with a client. It will be nice to spend some time in a place that isn't packed to the ceiling with boxes and I'm enjoying our trip so far and expect that some quiet time away from home next week will do us good (even if it is for work).



As a side note, today was the first annual Gasser Family Reunion which I had to miss because we had already planned this trip! My grandfather had me send "flat selves" of Patrick and I to Michigan so that we could "attend" the reunion.

Flat Brook and Flat Patrick before they were mailed off to Michigan!

(The characters are my own design, which I printed, colored, and pasted to manila folders for stabilization)

Here we are with my sisters

Photo courtesy of Gerry Gasser

I'm sorry to say that we missed it even though we had fun here in Anaheim. I hope to be able to attend next year! 

Smell Ya Later!

Hey guys!

Last night was our going away party and of course I want to document it and share it with you all!

Patrick and I have a lot of travelling to do this month (first we will be headed to the D23 convention in Anaheim and from there we go straight to Pasadena because Patrick will be working at a client in that area all week. When we get home, Patrick has just two days before he's off to New Jersey, where he will stay for nearly two weeks. When he gets home, we will have just two days to get everything finalized before we leave for Oregon) so we decided to have our going away party on a day and at a place that it seemed everyone could attend.

So not unlike most other get-togethers that we go to, we ended up at Cameron's Pub in Half Moon Bay (side note: did you know that Daniel Radcliffe was there just a few weeks ago rapping an Eminem song on karaoke night?). The party was a complete success and almost everyone we love and invited was able to make it! At a grand total count, Patrick determined that besides the two of us, 39 people showed up to say goodbye! It was incredible and we are so, so grateful that we were able to see so many of our loved ones before we left. We had people who were moving house all day, people who were moving house all day and leaving to move down state today, people who had worked all day, people who had just flown in yesterday, people who drove over an hour just to get there, people who had spent the entire day in the car driving up state, people who were in town from a different country, and people who I had never ever seen show up at Cameron's Pub for a Bawdy Caste related party.

We had an amazing time and we are both paying for it today with exhaustion, nausea, and a headache, but we wouldn't have traded that time for anything. We left with multiple gifts including a bottle of Polish vodka, a bottle of champagne, a beautiful flower arrangement, a cheesecake, a pie, and obviously very full hearts, all of which we are so, so thankful for.

Without further ado, allow me to insert a bunch of photos from the party.

Our beautiful and very sentimental cake

Photo courtesy of Shannon Wilke

James & Nate

James with the tequila and shot glass that we brought him and Nate as a parting gift. They also received a tangerine tree named Fergus the Ficus, which they will be nurturing here in California because we could not take him to some place that gets cold in the winter. 

Jackie, Siobhan, Zach, and Jack (with his brand new light up glasses!)

Fiona and Matt!

Sancho (Blake) and Delfino (Mike)!

The only normal photo that was taken all night. Kris, Delfino, Jack, and Jeb.

Team Brad Team! (minus Matthew)

Patrick with Kitten Mittens (Lisa)

Lena, Jack, and Milly!

Lena, Siobhan, and Jack

A mess. An absolute mess.

So that's it. That's what the last two years of my life have looked like because of these amazing people that I've met and come to love and consider family. Each and every one of them have changed my life and I will miss all of them more than they will ever know. Thank you all so much for coming to send us off and wish us well.

Goodbye California!

Yes, you read that right! Patrick and I are saying goodbye to California and

HELLO OREGON!

Many things lead up to this big change, so let me start from the beginning. I will try to keep it as short as possible*.

*Lol I say that every time and look how damn long this ended up being. Oops. 

Why We Moved to Tracy, CA

After our apartment complex in San Mateo, CA wanted to boost our 800 sq. ft. 2 bed/ 1 bath apartment to $2,800/month back in July 2014, we said "hell no!" and moved out to Tracy, CA, about 1-1.5 hours away from San Mateo. We signed a 13 month lease which we quickly forgot about.

Why We Are Moving Out of Tracy

Our apartment here, while beautiful, is full of flaws.

• The other renters here are not very classy
• Our apartment walls are so thin that we can hear people snoring through them
• The management is not given enough power to take care of the things that they see that we experience every day 
• Tracy is HOT. Neither of us predicted that most of the summer would be between 98-103 degrees F. We knew it would be hot, but not this hot. The temperature makes it nearly impossible for us to go outside during the day and even sometimes at night. 
• Our electric bill is through the roof because we have had the A/C on intermittently since February and on constantly since about April/May. 
• We have also found that the city of Tracy and the immediate surrounding areas do not offer enough for us in terms of shopping (we have to drive for 45 minutes to get to an Apple store and other things that we need more often than not). 
• The drive to the airport is slowly killing us since we have only one car (and we only need one car except for cases where Patrick needs to go to the airport).

Why We Are Moving to Oregon

Initially Patrick and I simply planned on moving out of Tracy and staying out in "The Valley." First we looked in Modesto and found an apartment there we liked, but it was still about the same distance from the airport (or actually a little further). Shortly after, Patrick had a business trip in Sacramento that I was able to go on and we really liked the area, so we set a date and went to check out tons of apartments on that day. The apartment we found ended up being in Roseville, CA, about 20 minutes outside of Sacramento. We chose three apartments, weighted them against one another, and then picked our favorite. When it came time to secure an apartment at the complex we chose, we tried to call them. Three times. We left messages. Patrick was on the road at the time, so I decided to look up the number and call them myself. That was when I saw the reviews. 

Normally I don't put much stock into Yelp! reviews, but when literally hundreds of them (the complex was huge) are saying that there is a lot of crime, many break-ins, and people doing drugs behind/between the buildings, you have to put your hands up and give in. This place was not a place I felt safe moving into and we let our calls go unanswered as we tried to find a new place to live.

Only having a couple of months to find a new apartment, Patrick and I were scrambling. We went into our leasing office to figure some numbers to see how much it would cost us to go month-to-month at our current place until we found a new place. That was when we were reminded that we had a 13 month lease and not a 12 month-- meaning that we had an extra month that we didn't realize we had. 

Patrick and I have always planned on making it up to Oregon at some point. I desperately miss the different types of weather that Michigan had and I hate the heat here. In addition, while I love our friends, the general mindset of most of the people I meet is that they all have to believe in something. I feel like I can't truly be myself or even speak about something that I might feel without someone getting super offended by it. Again, not within our awesome group of friends, but that is how I feel about California as a whole.

Fast forward to the first week of July and we went to Oregon on vacation (one that we planned months and months ago). I immediately loved it-- I cannot express enough how much I loved it and how upset I was when we had to leave. 

While we were there, we set aside a day to go look at apartments since it couldn't hurt and we didn't have a place to move yet. Seven places fit our criteria. Three of them worked well for us. One of them won by a landslide. We just had to wait for an apartment to open up at that complex, or else we would be screwed and living in our current apartment at $2,300/month (to go month-to-month until we found something). 

Thank goodness something opened up. At that point we applied for that unit and waited. After a whole debacle about my delinquent credit history (I've had my identity stolen and I've been working on getting it back), we have finally been approved for that apartment and we will be moving up to Oregon on Labor Day weekend.

Patrick and I could not be more thrilled about this move. We will be saving on rent and cost of living in general and we are thankfully able to accomplish our goal of getting up to Oregon earlier than previously thought. We will be about 25 minutes from the airport, Patrick already has friends up there (who basically did the same thing we did and got the hell out of dodge while they could and sought refuge in a less physically, mentally, and monetarily taxing place). A good friend of ours gave us some fantastic advice once and reminds us of what he said any time we talk about moving. He said "Make sure you're not just running away from something. Make sure you're running to it." That is definitely true of Oregon and while we are definitely running away from Tracy, we are running (as quickly as we can!) back to Oregon where we've both been the happiest that we've been in many months.

We will be having a going away party here and we will obviously keep in touch with our friends. The only downsides are that we are moving away from them (not that we see them all that often in the Valley, anyways, since we are so far) and moving away from Disneyland. We are trying not to think about that too much-- but the true upside of that is that we will be spending less by going to the park less often.

I hope you're as excited as we are! If anyone has any questions or would like to check out our apartment complex, please feel free to shoot me a message-- I would love to share our excitement with you! Also, if you need our new address for anything please let me know!