Assorted Birth Control Stories

As we all know, my little change for this week was to go back on the Pill (and take a multivitamin), so I thought I would give a little background information about my history with birth control pills as well as a little story about this most recent acquisition.

I started taking birth controls of one type or another when I was 15. This was not so I "could fuck" as a drunk girl in my graduating class so eloquently put it, but because I had terrible acne and such debilitating cramps that I would spend at least one day of my period feverish and throwing up. True story, to this day, I will not eat cottage cheese because that is what milk looks like when you throw it up. So, I took very low dose "birth control" to control my acne and cramps until I became sexually active. At that point I got my first PAP and switched to a pill that would actually prevent babies. My doctor recommended tri-cyclen because it is low dose and effective. Unfortunately, I experienced some spotting and asked to be switched to something else, so she recommended cyclen which is just 3 weeks of the highest dose of tri-cyclen. I was very happy with the cyclen, I started dating my husband and had another clean PAP.

This was about 4 and a half years ago. My doctor back in the day (whom I really liked) was also a mother to very young children and changed her schedule to only work for 3 hours 3 mornings a week and became IMPOSSIBLE to get an appointment with, so I started going to walk-in clinics to get my prescription renewed.

Then, 2 years ago, I moved to another province and had to start the process of finding a doctor all over again, and as it says at the top of the page, I am LAZY. So I continued to go to walk-in clinics to get my renewals and each doctor said that I needed a PAP and they would only give me 3 months worth of pills, which should give me enough time to book an appointment for a PAP where the doctor would give me a whole year's prescription. I got annoyed with this process and since I am too lazy to get a doctor and book an appointment to get a PAP I ran out of pills last fall and just decided to give my body a break.

*Please note that is truly is because I am too lazy to book an appointment and not because I am uncomfortable with the idea of a PAP. It is not a terrible procedure, I am not nervous about getting it done. EVERY sexually active female should get a PAP test done. I am an awful role model. I don't get manicures and pedicures either because I am too lazy to book appointments. Clearly, laziness is bad.

This fall, with the little changes upon me, I decided that I should go back on the pill, for the reasons mentioned in the previous post (hair-loss, doin' it, pulling out) and I headed back to the walk-in clinic.

To Be Continued...

Little Change 2 (and 3)

Well, it's Sunday and we all know what that means: it's time for a new little change!!!

*The crowd goes wild!!!!*

Anyway, since I am going on holidays for the better part of the next 2 weeks, the next 2 little changes will be a bit weak. I won't really be home to prepare meals or go to the gym or clean house or do any of that other stuff that needs to be "little changed" so these changes a pretty tame, but still important, or at least I think so. Therefore, without further ado, little change 2:

I will go back on the Pill and take a multivitamin every day.

These things may not seem very important to an outside observer, but they are both a part of the process involved in getting my hair to stop falling out and grow back in. For those who have not been webmd-ing female hair-loss, it can be caused by changes in hormones caused by going off of birth control pills and also by deficiency in certain vitamins (more specifically, vitamin B12 and vitamin E). As well, my husband would really appreciate being able to have sex more often than we do now. And I would like a more secure method of birth control than "pulling out". Even though pulling out is only slightly less effective at preventing pregnancy than condoms. Source

There are some more stories about the Pill, but I will get into that later in the week. On to little change 3! I am going to give you the set up for little change 3 this week because I will be away next Sunday and also because I am excited about it and want to get started today! I have gotten into a little bit of a rut wherein I spend my evenings (and afternoons, let's face it) watching TV. Not that there is anything wrong with that, in fact I LOVE watching TV, but I would like to expand my interests a little bit. Also, I love to read and since I only own the Harry Potter series, I have read those 7 books over and over and over. I still love them, but I want to start seeing other books. I have seen around the internet a list of the Top 100 books that people can't live without created by Guardian and I decided that I should make little change 3:

I will read 1 book from the Guardian "100 Books You Can't Live Without" every week.

I have read some of these books before, but I am going to re-read them for the sake of completeness (and because I liked them). I plan to write a short review of each book as I finish it on the website, just to keep myself motivated and so that I can remember the books after I have finished reading them. I am not a literary scholar, so these will not be indepth reviews discussing themes and character profiles, just my opinion of the story and characters in the book. I was at Coles today and they had classic novels 3 for $10, so I bought 3 books from the list (and got an additional 10% off with my irewards card, so each book was really only $3) and I am going to get started reading them this week while I am on planes and things. Also, I think I have several of these books at my Mom's house, so I will try and pick up as many as I can while I am home. I do not plan to buy everyone of these books, but hopefully will get most of them from the library or friends. The book I am going to start with is (oddly enough) number 1 on the list and one I picked up at the bookstore today: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

Wish me luck on my new changes!

The World is a Vampire

I have no idea where the title of that post came from (well, I mean, other than Billy Corgan's mouth). My brain just spit out those words when I asked it for a blog title and I went with it.

Yesterday was a super sucko jerk-hole day and I am infinitely glad that it is over and will never happen again. And then today I had a horrible dream that I didn't go to work until 11 and I was dressed all slutty and it was just all-around awful. I was awakened at 7:58 (boo-yah little change!) by my husband freaking out that he was going to be late for work (he starts work at 8). Upon waking I said, "Oh thank God!" because that dream was just so REAL. Looking back on it now I should have known it was a dream, there were all these weird things like the clothes I was wearing, the fact that our friend that works nights showed up sometime during the night and was sleeping on our balcony, and the frog in our apartment...and a bunch of other things that obviously weren't true to life.

I am so pleased that it is finally Friday. Whenever I say it is finally Friday I have to say "Finally Friday, Freedom Friday!" in my head because a radio dj when I was in university used to say that and it just stuck so securely in my craw. I don't have BIG plans for the weekend, just a lot of cleaning and junk to get ready for my holidays in a week. Hooray for holidays! I'm off to visit a friend and then to my hometown for another friend's wedding, with a lot of visiting stops along the way. I really can't wait. It's going to be totally Reaganomics.

Anyway, the sooner I go to work, the sooner it will be the weekend, so I am outs!

Radio Brain and Breakfast Blues

Ugh. I have radio brain again this morning, but definitely more severe. "All you did was save my life" by Our Lady Peace. Whiniest song ever. But nothing that a LOT of Four Year Strong can't fix, am I right?

It was a popcorn and candy supper last night, which means that there is still lots of popcorn and candy on my coffee table. As such, I am in the process of convincing myself that popcorn and candy do not make an effective breakfast, only a delicious one. And I have run out of corn pops and froot loops (the candy that you CAN eat for breakfast) so that leaves the at-home breakfast choices pretty slim. I suppose I could go to work even earlier and get a blueberry scone from the cafeteria. So delicious, but the best ones would probably already be gone, and then I would have to get a cinnamon one and those are not as good as one would think.

God my life is hard. :P

We all knew this would happen...

but I don't think anybody thought it would happen so soon.

Backsliding into old habits. Terrible. I didn't get up until 8:07 today! The really dangerous thing though was that I fell back asleep with the alarm clock radio on. This is not good because I could end up accidentally sleeping past 10 if I fall back asleep. Clearly, this says that the morning show is dullsville. They don't even play good music in the morning. The main reason I got out of bed was that they were playing "Do you know the enemy?" by Green Day and I have decided that song is the enemy of sleep. And as the first 2 lines of the chorus are on loop in my brain, it is also the enemy of my sanity.

I need to renew my commitment to the little changes; out of bed before 8 needs to be out of bed before 8, even if I don't want to be.

In other news, it's Wednesday. This means there are still 3 work days this week. Fun.

Staying the Course

Good Morning!

You may have noticed that I am posting this after 8 AM, but never fear, I am still sticking with my little change. I have already had a shower and eaten breakfast and it is now 8:35, so really, little change 1 is a major success so far. I am not exhausted during the day, I sleep much better, I'm early for work! It's really pretty cool what this one little change has done.

Also, my sunburn on my arms, shoulders and face is going to turn into a lovely tan, I am sure of it. My thighs also seem to be tan in most places, the severe burn at the top is still a bit painful though. Nerds to wearing underpants!

But really, overall, the word of the day is optimism!

Little Change 1: So Far So Good

Well, so far, this "little changes" thing seems to be going pretty well for me. As you can see, I am clearly out of bed before 8 AM and I did so for the entire weekend as well! Granted, we were at the lake, sleeping in a tent with 10-20 other people up and around, so getting up before 8 was not really a challenge.

I do regret not setting my first little change to "Put on sunscreen every morning" because I waited until noon on Saturday, and, let me tell you, that was a mistake. My arms, shoulders, back and face are pretty burned, but definitely not the worst that they have ever been. The worst is my thighs. Oh, my thighs! My giant, giant thighs!!! I have never burned my thighs so high up on my body, probably because I always wore the little boy-shorts or regular shorts over my swimsuit (stupid young me, wasting my hot young body), and it HURTS. That skin is sensitive yo!

Oh well, hindsight = 20/20, so now I know. Now, to keep up the good work on my first little change (and all subsequent little changes) so that next year at the lake I am in a little bikini and burn my beautiful little flat tummy too!

The Concept:

As my late twenties creep up on me, I find that my life is not going as well as it could. I have wasted my early twenties being a fat, lazy slob with no money and I don't really want to spend the rest of my life like this. Also, my hair is falling out. Which is a shame because I had really lovely hair.

This is especially frustrating because I know better.

I know that sitting on the sofa eating sunflower seeds and drinking Dr. Pepper is not the way to lose weight.

I know that buying chips for supper at 7-11 is not very cost or waist effective.

I know that I should walk more and use the gym membership that I am paying out the ass for.

I know that I should go to bed at a reasonable hour instead of staying up until 4 AM reading wikipedia articles about Sailor Moon and then lamenting that they do not sell the English dubbed cartoon that I loved as a child for a decent price on Amazon.

I know that I should wake up early, shower, eat breakfast and go to work instead of spending my morning starting blogs.

I know that I should pack a lunch instead of eating chocolate bars at 3 PM.

I know that I should be putting 20% of my income in an RRSP so that I can buy a house in a year or two.

I know that I should do laundry every week and dishes every night so that there isn't a mad scramble to clean things when I want to have people over.

I know I should make more of an effort to cultivate friendships at work and stop being such an awkward bitch.

I know all of these things (and more) about how to have a small waist, a clean house and retire at 50, but I am just too lazy to stick with them. My bad habits are too entrenched.

As such, I have decided that I am going to make 1 or 2 little positive changes every week in the hopes that they will stick better than my plans to make a million changes at once have. I am going to try to develop good habits bit by bit to replace my old crappy habits.

My long term goals:

to weigh 150 lbs

to wear a size 8

to regulate my schedule

to live in a tidy house within 2 years

to have stable finances

Now then, my starting point:

Weight: 198 (ouch!)

Size: 14+ (probably closer to 16)

Schedule: what schedule?

House: 1 bedroom apartment, dirty dishes, dirty laundry, general chaos

Finances: No debt (recent!), but no savings either

Generally, little change day will be Sunday, but I am going to give myself a couple extra days with the first one. So, the first of weekly little changes:

I will go to bed before 12 and get out of bed before 8 every day.

(Hey, I said they were little)