Too busy to blog

Sad, but true. I want to blog, but there are higher priorities at this point in my life, believe it or not. sMhyla.com will officially end in October (no renewal). I promise to return to the blogosphere in another blog life (pseudonym TBD). Email will still work (hint hint). Happy blogging until next time!

The Girls at Northend

The Girls at Northend
Originally uploaded by smhyla.

Just another barcrawl in the South Bay...

Feliz cumpleanos a mi

Another year has passed and gone. I don't feel any older, but the number increases anyway. This morning I realized that I will have to adjust my digital weight scale since it needs the number to calculate my body fat for some reason or another. I'm less and less excited as time passes. At least, I didn't go to work today.

Most excruciating pain in my life

I took it easy for most of the weekend because I felt like I was getting sick (again). Despite it being the crack of dawn on Monday, I managed to make it to my flight. Yup, I was off on another business trip. This time to good ol' Texas. The heat was not so bad, especially since I worked indoors for 99.9% of the time. The weather was similar to that in Mexico when I went for another business trip.

Friends have been exclaiming, "Wow, you're traveling alot." It's not much to tell you the truth. I used to travel alot more overseas, while these recent trips have been on this same continent. Most of my friends don't travel for work, I suppose.

Back to the main topic... I suspected that I was getting sick. As soon as the plane started descending, that's when I confirmed that I had a sinus infection. I haven't felt that pain in a long time. Normally, I would stay 1,000 feet away from a plane if I knew that I had a sinus infection. If you have been lucky enough to not experience this pain, let me describe it to you. Imagine you have 1,000 pins poking at your face, while you feel like the front of your head will explode. Push your eyeballs out. Your uppercheeks are also being tortured. That's how it feels like for me. I'd say this is the most excruciating pain my life (so far). I'm sure there are worse pains to be had, but this is bad as it is.

The sinus infection was compounded by my motion sickness. I can't read in moving vehicles, including a plane, at least not for long- not even the Sunday comics. Yes, I am not a lucky girl, I know. Anyhow, I made sure that the free white bag in your front seat pocket would be readily available if the situation worsened. Eventually the pain stopped when the plane landed, but the headache remained for a few hours.

I was too busy to call for my doctor when I arrived on Monday afternoon, but I made time to make the desperate call yesterday. I begged the nurse to ask my doctor to phone in a prescription from California to Texas. Otherwise, I did not want to put one footstep in that plane today on Wednesday. Fortunately, my doc did give me Z-Pak. However, I doubted that the antibiotics would kick in enough to eliminate my sinus problem. So I bought more medicine at the airport for sinus headaches, in addition to the other daily pills and sprays.

If you have to travel and are congested, then here is a easy checklist for survival of the sinuses (since I always forget something):

• Daily anti-histamine, i.e. Claritin, Allegra, etc.
• Daily nasal spray, i.e. Flonase
• Special nasal spray, i.e. generic with oxymetazoline HCL (avail cheap at Costco) - I only use on plane trips
• Sudafed
• Aspirin-free Excedrin for sinus headaches (avail at airport, thank goodness since I'm also allergic to aspirin)
• Antibiotics (for sinus infections)

The combination of the drogas may seem extreme, but my return flight to LA was much more pleasant. However, the fear of flying (or pain during flight) was unsettling for a few hours in the blue skys. On the same flight, there was an elderly man who was complaining about pain in near his eyes. The flight attendants were no help. I spoke up to tell him that he might have a sinus infection. It was painful to watch him be in pain. I offered my medicine, but I told him it was too late since the plane was touching down in a few minutes. The first time I experienced this pain was about 10 years ago, which caused me to cry like a baby on the plane and have a nose bleed when I got home. My doctor figured out that I had allergies. Ever since then, I take my allergy meds religiously.

This is an ultra long post, just making up for lost time in the blogosphere. Time for me to crash, since I'm sleep deprived, especially with the time difference, albeit only 2 hours. Let's just say that antibiotics potency does not have the same effect with repeated use and it's not cheap. If you have sinus infections frequently like me, then this article may have helped. If you don't, then you can help a friend from going insane on a plane when you spot the symptoms.

zzz...

Google goodies galore

I've been surfing the Google site lately... I use Google products every day, but hadn't fully explored the Google technology playground (AKA Google Labs) until now. Check out these new toys:

• Google Spreadsheets - like Excel but saved on the web, great for sharing with other people at other locations
• Google Notebook - like Word but saved on the web, AND you can Google your own notes, no more hassle with paper
• Google Page Creator - if you want a webpage but not a blog, this is easy to use, no need to pay for webhosting either!

I also learned that the Google search bar does more than searching.

• Calculator - type in 2^10 or 2+2, then Google will do the math for you!
• Tracking - type in a FEDEX (or other) tracking number to get an update on your package
• Maps - no need to go to maps.google.com, simply type in the address in the search bar

Ok, you may have know this already, great. If you didn't, now you do. What next? (Little birdie mentioned "Writely", but it's closed right now.)

Busy, busy bee, I am

I've been crazy busy with work and life. I haven't had much time to blog, much less take a breather. 3 days down, 2 to go. I can't wait until Friday afternoon is over. Time is passing me so quickly nowadays. This is a vague post, I know.