First Timer

Okay, so this is my first official BLOG. I used Xanga way back in the day, but I don't think I ever posted anything significant in there. Only pictures of cute icons and junior high nonsense. I've also posted a couple of 'blogs' for my film class here at UT (University of Texas at Austin - Hook 'Em!), but they are more about assigned film topics rather than personal rants. First of all, I would like to congratulate myself on the creative name for my blog! Haha, I thought it was very clever, and it will probably keep me giggling to myself for a while. A few random incidents led me to committing to blog-writing. First of all, I wanted to keep track of my sister's blog. She was recently engaged and is keeping friends updated on wedding plans via Blogger. I also became interested in blogging as a result of the blogs I have to write for class. Some of the topics were a lot of fun, so I thought I would give real blogging a try. We'll see if I actually keep this updated.

So, there has been a lot of craziness going on in my life lately. I officially became an Austinite last week after my car got towed for the first (and hopefully only) time. Apparently tanning salons don't like you leaving your car in their parking lot very long. But I had been bouncing around various parking spaces in the area around which I live for a while now, so I had been suspecting it would happen eventually. So my boyfriend and I set out to find the tow lot, which was way out in the boonies. It felt somewhat like Texas Chainsaw Massacre territory. After paying the gentleman a nice $200 fine, I got my poor car back without too much damage done. Except for the 200 bucks that I'll never see again.

Another stressful incident that happened this past week as well (the day after the car towing, in fact) was repeated visits to the doctor's office. I've been experiencing some difficulty breathing after doing simple tasks, like climbing a flight of stairs, as well as getting exhausted, overheated, and lightheaded easily. I went to the doctor to figure out if there was something going on, and apparently something very serious was happening. After some blood work, I supposedly had an elevated result on a D-dimer test, which tests for possible blood clotting. The doctor thought it may be a serious side-effect of my contraceptive pills. Basically, I was told it was likely I was experiencing blood clotting in my lungs and/or heart and require a CT scan immediately. This is a very long story, but supposedly the D-dimer test is typically for old folks, not a college student like me. So is this doctor scaring me into spending my money for a hokey reason, or do I have a legitimate reason to worry about my health? After consulting with my parents and my doctor back home, the conclusion was: better safe than sorry. I spent the entire next day bouncing between doctor's offices, trying to find someone to give me a CAT scan from 7:30 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon. It was all accomplished in the end, and the hokey doctor called back later in the evening and confirmed that I am not clogging my arteries with contraceptive pills. That's good to know.