The Big O.

Last week sometime, one of my co-workers approached my little corner of the world and asked "What are you doing next Thursday?"  I was suspicious.  Suspicious because this is a girl who I became fairly close to--she attended my bridal shower and wedding, we ate lunch together nearly every day, roomed together when we traveled for a conference.  And then, for some reason everything changed.  I know I can be snarky and difficult sometimes, but I swear that I cannot come up with a single reason why our relationship has changed so much.  Now we certainly don't eat together.  We hardly even speak to each other.  I realize conversation is a two-way street, but when someone no longer expresses even the slightest tinge of being interested in your life, it's hard to come up with a reason to press.  For a long time I was *very* upset about all of this.  I even briefly contemplated looking for a new position.  But, here's the thing, my boss is *fantastic*, truly.  And I have been through a hell of a lot worse than being ignored.  So, I have found a new lunch buddy.  And do my work quietly most days in my little corner of the world.  I'm finally okay with that.

ANYWAY, this co-worker asks what I'm doing next Thursday.  I think I must have kind of shrugged because I wasn't sure where this was going.  Well, it was going to Oprah.  Yes, this co-worker worked some sort of miracle and after 6 months of trying, finally managed to win the Oprah lottery and had access to 4 tickets to a taping.  And she was asking me!  I was puzzled.  I debated.  But less than 24 hours later, I graciously accepted the offer.  To hell with it, this is Oprah, I reasoned!

So, on Tuesday night I went on a mini-spree and planned my outfit.  The cardigan and trouser jeans were new, from The Gap.  My version of this shirt is from New York and Company and cost about $20, while the one pictured here is designer and cost $400.  I don't know why people would pay that much, but whatev.  The bracelet was actually a very similar necklace (also from New York and Company) that they didn't have pictured on the website.  I wore earrings that I already owned and the shoes weren't new either.  Not too shabby; bright colors (wearing white or cream on top is a no-no for the big O) and comfortable.  (I have seen these polyvore boards before and never had a reason to create one.  This may be the first and last time, but it was kinda fun!)

Oprah! by marienkafer featuring GAP 
  


This morning was the big day.  The alarm went off at 3:45 a.m.  Much too early in my opinion.  I am *not* a morning person.  Not even a little bit.  But, by some miracle, I was dressed and out of the house just before 5.  Met up with my co-workers at 5:40ish.  Made it to Harpo studios at 6:45 and joined the long, long line.  We thought we were early getting there when we were!  Not so much.  After a little bit of a wait, outside, in the cold, we started moving.  I think we were in the building by 7:15.  Checking coats and making it through security took another half hour.  Once we were done with that we were ushered into the "holding area."  I know this is going to sound bad, but I kind of felt like I was part of a herd of cattle at this point.  The holding area was on the second floor and wasn't very big.  It was full of chairs, just over 300 of them, placed in long rows, facing each other, and awkwardly close.  The whole audience was up there!  It was warm and crowded.  And we sat there for just over an hour.

We kept ourselves entertained by taking wild guesses as to the topic of the show and starting conversations with the people around us.  Turns out that we were a few seats away from friends of "the guest."  One of them was hall of famer Jim Kelly's brother.  We also met a very nice gentleman whose sister works for the Chicago Bulls.  We know this because he was wearing a Bull's Championship Ring from 1993 and everyone surrounding him was curious about it.  Bling!  When he said it was an NBA championship ring the woman next to him actually asked "Oh, is that the Super Bowl?"  Poor thing.

Finally, finally, they started calling names of the special people and those chosen to sit in the front section.  Lucky devils.  Then the rest of us were called by the number on our consent forms.  I was 147.  But, who cares?!  We were walking into the studio!!!

The studio is much smaller than it looks on TV.  The seats were incredibly close, no leg room at all, but it was comfy enough.  After some time "warming up" (q & a with the audience and...some dancing!), the moment was upon us.  Oprah was on her way.

She approached the stage barefoot, clutching a pair of Louboutins in her hand (black peep toes).  She took her seat, looking sleepier than I expected, but still fabulous.  And started putting on her shoes, "These shoes are for sitting only!"  omg.  How awesome is that?!  She chatted with the audience a bit.  Told us about the trials and tribulations of living with puppies (I think she has 2 right now)--"They shit A LOT."  Yes, Oprah said shit! 

Once "the guest" came out though it was all business.  I think the actual taping probably only took 30-40 minutes.  And we were in the studio just over an hour total.  We didn't "win" anything.  No free samples or anything like that.  Heck, we were lucky that there was a water cooler in the waiting room!  But Oprah was incredibly gracious.  She told us all how much she appreciated us being there, how she knows how long it can take to get tickets, how difficult it can be too choose an outfit (!!!), and arrange for travel/time off/babysitters.

It was a great experience and I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to go.

The show airs March 3rd.  And I think there will have to be a whole 'nother post on the topic.  I'm going to make my husband watch too so I can discuss it with him.  It was one of those tear-jerkers... but... well, something was a bit off for me.  Maybe it will feel differently on TV.  :)

And now, it's 8:34 and it's bed time.  I'm exhausted.

Oprah: you should go.

Favorite makeup products.

I am by no means a product expert when it comes to beauty.  I do have some favorites however.  Things that I use on pretty much an every day basis.  Maybe some of my favorites will be helpful to you.

I use Bare Minerals foundation.

I have tried several other types of mineral makeup and this is the best one I've found.  They have a fairly large selection as far as shades go.  I've found that fairly light is the best shade for me, only one notch darker than the palest shade.  Yes, I'm a ghost most of the year.  This makeup goes on easily and is very light.  So light that I usually forget I'm wearing it!  Yay!

This is one of my few splurges.

Nars The Multiple in... you guessed it... Orgasm.  You can find this little wonder for about $40 at Sephora.  Amazon also carries it.  It is worth the price!  You can use it as blush, eye shadow and lip color (haven't tried that yet!).  It's a creamy stick and the color blends well.  I have had mine for nearly a year and have used it pretty much every day since purchase and still have nearly half a stick left.  Love it.

For brow grooming I recommend this little wonder...

Benefit Brows-a-go-go.  I really only use the two brow powders regularly, but the kit is cheaper than purchasing the two shades separately and it comes with the cutest little mini tweezers evah!  Tweezerman brand even!  My brows are a crazy in-between shade (dark for my dirty blonde hair) and a mix of the two colors is prefect for filling in sparse areas or just adding some definition.

My eyeshadows are mostly Ulta brand!

The formula is very blendable and they have a TON of shades.  They're also usually on sale so it's buy 1, get 1 free!  Nice.  I'm one of those freaks that can't use an eye pencil, so I even use these shadows for my liner.

This little gadget helps with that immensely, also Ulta brand!


Finally, for undereye concealer, I use Benefit Erase Paste.

I was skeptical about this because I have tried a *lot* of different concealers (ghostly pale=dark undereyes).  A tiny bit goes a long way with this.  It covers well and has a tinge of shine to brighten.  Fab.

I don't wear mascara on a regular basis because I spend some time peering through a microscope almost daily.  But when I do use it, it's usually just a drug store brand.

The icing to my routine, that I only use sometimes, is my scent of choice.  Again, this was a bit of a splurge, but it was a gift, so I don't feel so guilty.

It's L'Occitane Iris Eau de Parfum.  My husband actually purchased this for me while he was in Paris on business.  What a guy.  :)

The dangers of adopting a mutt.

Don't get me wrong, we LOVE our mutt.  But we sure have had a long series of ups and downs with her.  Right now we're back on a downward path--bummer!  I have discussed some of the behavioral issues that we've had with her already and there will be a big update on that soon because we actually started with with a trainer!  For right now though, I want to put down everything that I can remember about her health issues, which really just boils down to skin issues.  We're still trying to figure out the actual *cause* of them.  Unfortunately, to this point, our vet(s) have not been much help so I thought maybe creating a log of everything I can recall would help.  Let's hope so....

When we brought Lita home she was already on a high-quality (no fillers!) diet at the shelter.  It was a chicken, lamb and rice kibble and we brought a bag home with us from the shelter.  She had some patchy bald spots on her coat, but the first vet visit revealed the usual shelter dog ailments--icky skin, ear infection, multiple intestinal parasites.  We came home with medicated shampoo, ear cleaning products and treatments for the parasites.  No big.  When the first bag of food ran out--probably about 4-6 weeks later--I found a local shop that carried it and bought another bag.  Spoke with the very knowledgeable staff about our new addition.  Because Lita was a shelter dog, who we know had been through at least one shelter previously, they recommended a course of probiotics and enzymes to "re-balance her system" or something like that.  I honestly thought it sounded a bit kooky, but picked them both up anyway, figuring it couldn't hurt and if it helps so much the better!  I also bought a bottle of salmon oil which is supposed to be great for coat conditioning.

Somewhere along the way, the girl started getting what we thought were blisters between her toes.  They'd get swollen a little.  She'd lick them.  They'd burst.  I'd clean them.  And they'd generally go away.  She was getting weekly baths then too.

By the time we made it to our third bag, the blisters were gone, but she had gotten these bumps on her back.  They seemed like pimples to me.  They were red and swollen around the hair follicle.  They'd get big and burst and ooze a little (lovely, I know).  We took her to the vet and she was diagnosed with a bacterial infection and we were told that it was likely that she had a food allergy that was the primary cause.  She was put on 2 weeks worth of antibiotics (can't remember what kind, bad mom!).  They got worse rapidly and to the point where there would be several of them clustered and her hair would actually fall out at those places.  I continued baths and after about a week and a half on the meds they started going away.  We changed her food at this point too, for the allergy issue--from chicken, lamb and rice to duck and potato.  All her treats were tossed.  No more rawhides either.  No more salmon oil.  We actually managed to find several duck-based treats, including duck jerky!, and that's all she got.

Soon she was done with her antibiotics, the bumps were gone!, the blisters were gone! and her "course" of probiotics and enzymes was out as well.  I didn't think we'd need to give her more.

A miracle!  We made it to her second bag of duck and potato and all seemed well.  Then she got hives all over her belly and back legs.  We called the vet, not the same kind of bumps as before.  Maybe it's an environmental allergy.  We haven't really changed anything, but we washed all her bedding (none of it was new) in hypoallergenic detergent, upped her daily dose of benadryl to 3 tabs (25 mg) 2X a day, and applied hydrocortisone religiously. 

Eventually, the hives mostly went away, but she was still itchy and had blisters on her toes again.  My mom did some digging and finds Nzymes.  Supposedly the symptoms of yeast overgrowth can very closely resemble allergies.  She has a lot of the symptoms:

SKIN AND COAT (X) Rashes and Itching (X) Hives (X) Draining Sores (X) Body Odor (X) Face Rubbing (X) Acne ( ) Eczema (X) Oily, Greasy Skin (X) Dry, Flaky Skin (X) Excessive Shedding ( ) Discolored Skin (blackened skin) (X) Thickened Rough Skin	GENERAL HEALTH (X) Fatigue ( ) Poor Appetite ( ) Overweight ( ) Nervousness ( ) Anxiety (?) Allergies ( ) Environmental Sensitivities to pollens, weeds and grass ( ) Frequent Infections (X) Dull rough hair coat	SCORE RESULTS 0 = excellent health 1-2 = mild dietary change and nutraceutical/herbal support needed. 2-5 = moderate dietary change and nutraceutical/ herbal support needed. 5+ = marked dietary change, nutraceutical and herbal support and time needed for your dog or cat to cleanse, detoxify rebuild his or her immune system and replenish missing food nutrients not available from previous diet.
EARS (X) Ear Infections ( ) Increased Discharge (X) Ear Itching (X) Ear Scratching / Rubbing	EYES (X) Itching Eyes (X) Red, Irritated Eyes ( ) Cloudy Eyes ( ) Excessive Tearing ( ) Dull Appearance to Eyes	MUSCULOSKELETAL SYSTEM (X) Limping and Stiffness ( ) Joint Pain ( ) Arthritis ( ) Backaches ( ) Stiff Neck
DIGESTIVE SYSTEM (X) Bad Breath (X) Smelly Bowel Movements ( ) Indigestion ( ) Frequent Episodes of Vomiting / Diarrhea ( ) Constipation ( ) Malformed Stools (X) Anal Gland Irritation	UROGENITAL SYSTEM ( ) Bladder Infections ( ) Bladder / Kidney Stones ( ) Increased Urination (X) Irregular Heat Cycles ( ) Vaginal Discharge / Infections	RESPIRATORY SYSTEM ( ) Wheezing ( ) Coughing ( ) Asthma ( ) Nasal Discharge (X) Reverse Sneezing (X) Itching Nose

 It was like a light was shining down upon us.  Part of me thinks it's crazy again, but at this point I was willing to try anything.  We bought the kit.  We started her on it 2 weeks ago.  And have been giving her twice weekly baths.  The blisters have gotten worse.  The bumps on her back are resurfacing.  I'm at my wits end! 

I've done a little bit of research on her skin condition and if I had to guess I'd say it's pyoderma, a bacterial infection of the skin, which is exactly what they told us last time.  Supposedly, it's quite common for it to re-surface if the antibiotic course is not long enough.  "They" recommend 3-4 weeks, we only did 2.  But the question still remains... what is the underlying cause?  Allergies?  FOOD allergies?  Yeast overgrowth?!  ARGH!

Other random facts:

~She has been on and off benadryl pretty much since we brought her home.  We thought it was seasonal allergies for awhile so she was on it for much of the fall.  And then again when she got the hives.  Not sure if it ever actually *helped* or not.  Luckily, they never really seemed to zonk her out at all.  :)
~Yes, I checked the box for irregular heat cycles.  Yes, she's "spayed."  But she went into heat in September (about a month after we brought her home).  We had her estrogen levels checked.  They were at zero.  ZERO.  So she's "spayed," but there must be just a little bit of something left in there to cause a mini-cycle.  She went in again at the beginning of the month.  We haven't done anything about it yet... the only thing we could do is an exploratory surgery the next time she cycles.  I'm not sure we want to do that.  Maybe if we get her other issues figured out.
~And I also checked the box for anal gland irritation!  TMI!  She has had her anal glands "expressed" twice since we adopted her.  The first time was when the bumps were checked out the first time.  And the second time was just a few weeks ago, after the hives, before the bumps returned.  :)
~She has been on the Nzymes for almost 2 weeks now.  No improvements, obviously.  But all the literature says that it's likely to get worse before better.  Maybe this is the worse?  We still need to take care of those bumps if it's an infection.  Which will mean more antibiotics, which cancels out the probiotics and enzymes... Do we change her food again?!  Or give the antibiotics and essentially start over with the Nzymes.  I have no freaking clue.

We have a vet appointment on Saturday to have her checked out again.  Hopefully, this doctor will listen to the whole story and help us formulate a plan.  That's all I want: a course of action.  It would help us so much to know her history, but there's no chance of that.  THIS is the danger of adopting a mutt.  Not the fact that she is a mix of breeds, but the fact that she has no history!  I probably would have taken her anyway, but at least if we had known about these issues, we would have been better prepared to deal with them.  I just need someone to help me figure out what to do.