When I was working on my masters in theatre, I was required to take a “Dramatic Theory and Criticism Class.”  It was one of the most challenging classes of my academic career and one of my favorites.  Structuralism, Feminist Theory, Queer Theory, Plato’s The Republic, Aristotle’s The Poetics — yeah, this class completely hurt my brain.  The most memorable aspect of the curriculum was the topic of semiotics.  In a nutshell, it’s the study of signs and symbols and how meaning is constructed and understood.  For instance, there is nothing innate about a chair being called a chair.  It could just as easily have been called a dog.  And yet, we as a collective choose to accept that a chair is a chair.  Red means hot (and stop), blue means cold.  Skull and cross bones means danger — or the Jolly Roger if you’re a fan of pirates.  Signs and symbols are everywhere.  Our very language is a part of this. It can get hinky when we start talking about things like freedom, democracy, patriotism, morality.  But I digress-

So where am I going with this?  One of our assignments was to write a short paper on the semiotics of a room in our house.  We had a huge conversation about the semiotics of a place we visit for the first time.  We make judgements about our surroundings until we become familiar with it.  It was a pretty difficult assignment — trying to analyze a room in one’s own house as if seeing it for the first time.  I remember asking my classmates if they ever experienced something traumatic in their lives (heartache, death of a loved one, etc.) and their surroundings immediately seem alien.  They all agreed that this has happened at some point in their life.

And now to the point — all my surroundings have seemed completely foreign to me for the past week.  I guess that’s what happens when overnight, you become a raging insomniac due to restless leg syndrome.  I have seen the sun rise more in the past week than I have in my entire life — no joke!  I have a whole new appreciation for the poor soul who can’t get to sleep.  It messes with your entire life and can thrown you into a deep funk.  It got so bad, that I asked Chucklebutt to cancel his annual Utah 1088 trip.   I definitely have felt like I am going to lose my mind.

I tried everything — relaxation techiniques, quigong breathing, exercise (limited because I’m still gammed up from the surgery).  I even resorted to listening to Mom’s favorite radio show — Coast to Coast.  It’s your source to go to for alien abductions, conspiracy theories, Big Foot and other paranormal phenomena.  Nothing worked.  I laid in our guest room bed — Scout right by my side — and stared at my bordello Christmas tree I have yet to take down.

Yummmmm — cupcakes!

I love this flower.

Creepy pink Santa.  It’s actually really pretty in real life.

And that’s pretty much what Scout and I have looked like for the past week — wide awake and crazed.

So after repeated calls to my OB, internist, and pharmacist, I have some good news and some bad news.  The good news is I know what’s giving my legs the willies — the birth control pill.  The estrogen has thrown my body our of whack and is giving my legs a heck of a time.  It has been reported that pregnant women experience severe RLS.  The pill I was on, makes my body thinks it’s pregnant.  Ergo, severe RLS for Nicole!  Needless to say, I’ve stopped taking the pill.  The bad news, of course, is that I still need to be on something to prevent scarring and to create a nice cozy home for a baby.  Hmmmmm,  maybe my OB can work some magic.

Tomorrow I head back to work part time and I am looking forward to getting out of the house.  I have rediscovered ebay (hey, a girl has to find something to occupy her time at 3am) and it’s becoming a bit dangerous.  Mom had her gall bladder taken out in 1986.  That was when it was major surgery.  It was also the same time that QVC came out.  She bought all sorts of stuff — jewelry, watches, you name it.  I remember Daddy saying, “Hells Belles woman!  We’ve got to get you better so you can stop shopping!”

It hasn’t gotten that bad — Chuck isn’t saying things like “Hells Belles”, but I better stop while I’m ahead.

Have a good week everyone!

My mother has been an insomniac since the age of twelve.  I think it has something to do with a fear of death…or maybe it’s a fear of missing out on something.  On a good night, she’ll get six hours a night.  She’s been known to call me at 12am, which means it’s 3am her time.  Her motto is: “I can sleep when I’m dead.”  In comparison, I can sleep at a drop of a hat.  Planes, trains, automobiles– it doesn’t really matter where I am, I can sleep.  My motto is: “I’ll sleep when I’m…zzzzzzzz.”

So you can imagine my surprise last night, when at 4am I was still wide awake.  Mind you, it was sorta cool seeing the sun rise, but it didn’t make up for the fact that I was exhausted and frustrated that I couldn’t sleep.  Chuck was no help either.  He went to bed pretty late, but then he started snoring.   I woke him up promptly and told him I couldn’t sleep.  He wasn’t impressed and rolled right back to sleep.  Eventually, I feel asleep right around 6.  Boy was I grumpy!

I was pretty worthless today and vegged out on our couch all day.  I did, however,  catch some great, classic movies.

This is such a great movie!  I even sucked Chucklebutt into watching it.  We giggled and gasped as Lucy and Desi traveled across America in their long, long trailer.  My favorite parts are when Lucy tries to cook dinner while Desi is driving — hilarious!  My other favorite scene is when Lucy collects all these giant stones from the various places they have visited.  It adds an incredible amount of weight and they experience some problems climbing an 8000 elevation road.  If you have never seen this movie, I highly recommend it.

Another movie I watched today, while not necessarily stellar, definitely evoked some great memories.

I was ten years old the first time I saw this movie and instantly became obsessed.  (I am ashamed to say I’ve never seen the original all the way through.)  Grease 2 is my High School Musical.  I’ll admit it was a little painful to watch, but it helped me to empathize with all my students who swoon over Zac Efron and want to be Ashely Tinsdale.  I guess every generation has their teeny bopper flick.  Mine is Grease 2.  I remember my best friend (Emme O’Connell) and I setting our alarms for 2am in the morning so we could catch its last run on HBO.  We were so crazy.  In college, I introduced all my dorm buddies to the movie and they were not impressed.  Sigh.  It will always have a special place in my heart.  I even got my “cool rider.”   (Interesting bit of trivia, the twins in this movie are the sisters of Katy Segal (Peg Bundy).  Who knew?)

While I watched my movies, I treated myself to my favorite movie theatre candy:

Nothing says the movies like black licorice.  Yum-Me!

My other favorite candy is Goetze’s Bull’s Eyes (Cow Tails come in a close second).  So despite the sugar high, I was still able to take a two hour nap.  At least my nap schedule hasn’t been messed with. 

Finally, I wanted to give a shout out to all the poppas in the world.  Happy Father’s Day.  I miss you Daddy!  The following clip is for you:

I had a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday, and the good doc said I am healing quite nicely.  She doesn’t want me to lift anything or do any strenuous activity for another four weeks, but aside from that, I’m good to go. Hopefully in another week I’ll be able to drive.

She gave me pictures of my fibroid and it is super nasty looking.  I would post it here, but I don’t want to scare any of my blog readers.  “Oh let’s go check on Gibby’s Girl.  Altered art, fun adventures with Chucklebutt…Good God what is that?!?!?!”  It definitely looks like something from the mind of H.R. Giger.  Mind you I am a glutton for all things grotesque and have even been know to google parasites, bot flies and wacky medical conditions.  Chuck thinks I’m nuts.  Anyway, I’ve got the photos of my fibroid and that sucker was 6 inches and almost a pound.  My doctor said she had to cut up one side of my uterus and over the top.  Yipes!  She’s a bit anxious about scar tissue and the possibility of my uterus caving in on itself.  As a result, she’s put me on the pill.  I was a bit squirrely about the whole estrogen thing, but feel a lot better once I talked with her.  They also sent the fibroid to a pathologist and were a bit worried about some cells, but while we were at the office, they called and said everything looked good.

So, as far as my first major surgery, I feel pretty good about the whole process.  I’m pretty much off the narcotic altough I’ve been having some super wierd feelings near the incision — almost like a burning sensation.  Chuck told me it’s deferred pain.  I had never heard of such.  He explained he had the same thing when he had his knee surgeries.  The nerves are cut and so there is no feeling on the actual incision.  The pain is then “deferred” to the surrounding area.  Weird eh?

Mom left Monday night and I miss her terribly.  And not because she can make this:

That’s escargot, and Chuck really can’t compete with her cooking.  He orders a mean take-out however and can do a load of laundry like nobody’s business.  I guess I’ll keep him.

I had a really good time with Mom and she helped me organize my craft room.  OMG it was a disaster.  I had bags of crap everywhere and it was totally out of control.

Isn’t she cute?  She played with my wigs to keep sane amidst all the mess.

This pic was taken right before we took her to the airport.  Thank you Momma for all your help!  Chucklebutt sure does miss your cooking! 

To entertain myself, I’ve been catching up on books and movies.  Mom turned me onto a really good mystery writer — Lisa Gardner.  That’s all I did today was read.  Last night I watched “Scarface” for the first time and was surprised that all the Cubans were played by Italians.  I read the third book in the “Twilight” series and was not impressed.

I’ll leave everyone with pics from Chuck of our wreaths.  We finally finished them and I love how they look!

Mom’s is on the right and mine is on the left.  Again, thank you Amy for an awesome class!  I’m thinking that this might be a neat project for my residents to do.  It may need some modifying, but I think they would really enjoy it. Right now, I have mine hanging in the kitchen.  It makes me smile!

As I said in the last post, Mom and I both bought bracelets from Christine over at Dollybelle.

We did not shop at the same time, and when we showed each other our purchases, we saw that we bought essentially the same things.  Teehee!  Great minds think alike!

My bracelets are on the right and Mom’s are on the left.  Christine’s jewelry is so unique and fun!  I can’t wait to wear my new cuffs.

Thank you everyone for all your well wishes!  Kim and Jennifer at Mystic Paper, I can’t wait until I’m able to come visit.  I’m ready to take a class and shop!  To all my residents, thank you for the emails, cards and letters.  Chuck is going to drive me in on Wednesday for the Butter Bean Auction.  Jan, thank you for all your comments on my blog –  I really appreciate it!  Mom, we miss you — and not just because you make great escargot!  Until next time — Cheerio!

So before staples, narcotics and hospital visits (boy that seems so long ago) Mom and I took a most amazing journey to Los Angeles to be a part of Kim Caldwell’s Artisitc Affaire.  The best way to describe it is a decadent, day-long art retreat.  We headed out the Friday before my surgery in an awesome rental car that Chucklebutt got for us.

We were up early on Saturday morning and at the venue by 8:30am.  What an amazing time!

Oh yeah, those hydrangeas are real!

The attention to detail was amazing.  Everywhere you looked was pink eye candy — right down to the pink M&M’s.

Even the clear plastic cups were pink!

All the crafting took place in the upstairs of a warehouse style loft.

I love this pic of Mom.  I’m sorry it’s so dark — there were windows everywhere and it was hard to get my camera to cooperate.

Our first project was from the amazing Amy Powers — a a Home Sweet Home wreath.  Mom and I just finished them today.  Chucklebutt will take some artsy photos of it tomorrow and I’ll be sure to post it.  Check out my mad sewing skillz!

Me and Amy.  OMG she is so darn cute!  I love her apron and pants.

After our first class, we had lunch and then began working on our mosaic boxes from Michelle — the Mosaic Queen.  It was so fun smashing all that china.

Here’s Mom working with the tile nippers.

After the mosaic class, we had a tea.  It was delicious and the presentation was precious!

I love cupcakes and these were perfect!

This arrangement was real as well.  It was absolutely gorgeous.

We were crafting until 9pm at night!  Talk about an amazing experience!  We grazed on delicious food and got artsy all day long!

These were the ladies who sat at our table — Marilyn, Elizabeth and Nancy.  They were lots of fun.

During one of our many snack breaks, we exchanged bird houses from the Home Tweet Home Swap.  The amazing Christine– of Dollybelle fame– was my partner and she really outdid herself with my birdhouse!  Christine was also a vendor and Mom and I bought quite a bit from her.

Here’s Mom standing in front of Christine’s both.  She had the most amazing jewelry.

Here is a pic of all the birdhouses — actually I didn’t get all of them in the shot, but you get the idea.

I swiped this photo from Kim’s blog since I didn’t take a picture of the birdhouse I made.

Well my energy is fading so I better go take a breather.  I hear Mom’s brownies calling me.