Another Gem

Time for another gem from the "Friendly" neighborhood convenience store ...

I was standing at the counter and someone approached behind me and asked, "What does that say on your back?" I explained that the tattoo symbol on my back meant, "Peace and Harmony." To which he replied, "Cool."

Seconds later, he was out of his shirt displaying his tattoo on the same place on his upper back which he described as the John 3:16 Bible verse written in Sanskrit. To which I responded, "Cool."

And because it was a large tattoo, I asked the common question, "Did that hurt?" To which I got a not-so-common answer: "Well, I got it in prison so it probably hurt more than it should have."

About Time

I met Adrienne Mabel yesterday for the first time. She's the beautiful big blue-eyed baby girl of my BFF. She FINALLY had her baby girl yesterday and I was there for the whole birth.

BFF exhibited her strength, willpower and endurance yesterday. During the labor and birth, the nurses were amazed at how calm and collected she labored through the whole process. She moaned a few pains and asked a few times, "Why won't this baby come out?" But it in the end, she never strayed from her calm, collected will to get through and have a beautiful baby in the end. She made the 12 hours of labor and Three Hours of Pushing look like it wasn't the most painful experience she's ever had. And I think she would tell you, by the looks of her gaze into her baby's eyes, that it was all worth it.

Given how long this labor took and how many Hours she had to Push, it is no wonder that Adrienne came out holding onto the umbilical cord for dear life. The jokes flew about how she didn't want to come out and was going to crawl back up there. The Doc even joked that her other hand was flipping him off. But I think it really meant that she slid down the rope (which is what the cord looked like) and announced, "TA DA. Here I am."

To which we all responded, BFF resounding over the rest of us, "It's about time."

HUBS!

Hubs is coming home today! He's been gone for almost two weeks and I'm just getting accustomed to it. Now he'll be here for 6 sleeps over our 1st anniversary. I'll probably get accustomed to him being home again. And then he'll leave. Isn't there some drug I could take to get used to this?

Follow-Up

I rolled into my 2d acupuncture appointment much more relaxed than I thought I would. On my way over, I conjured up my most relaxing thoughts and was able to settle those anxious feelings a tad before I subjected myself to more needle torture. I secretly hoped that would mean I didn't have to get the series of needles in my back that were intended to clear the toxins from my body.

Contrary to my plan, I got the series of needles in my back. But this time, they didn't hurt at all; a good sign that the toxins were cleared from my body. I was told that due to the clean and healthy life I led over the weekend (ahem, choke), my body kept releasing the toxins even after their medium (the needles) were gone. I think someone should invent a way to make pillows and cushions be the medium that the body needs to release toxins.

Post toxin release, she poked me with a few more needles that were intended to release the block in my arm keeping my energy from flowing throughout; the flow of energy that is necessary to heal injuries or release stress naturally. Immediatly upon insertion and extraction of each needle from my wrist, the side of my face near the triangle part of the outer ear, and from the inner-eye (YES INNER EYE), I could feel a sensation that was so much like a removal of a plug that released a deluge of stuff from inside. I felt cleared in the same way you get relief when your nose finally unplugs after days of sniffling and breathing through your mouth. In one area, near the triangle of the outer ear, in the void left when you open your jaw, she missed the "meridian" where she intended to place the needle. I didn't feel a thing. By contrast, when she placed the needle in the "meridian," a mere hair from the original placement, I confirmed my belief in the values of acupuncture. I felt, this time, an extremely intense release of a plug and then subsequent flow that hasn't stopped since my appointment yesterday.

I felt GREAT when I left. I still have the tingling sensation in my fingers but the arm pain is gone. I don't know how it's done or whether there are studies on the science of acupuncture, but it doesn't matter; feeling is believing.