It's Been A Few Days

I haven't been able to blog the last few days. Not because I didn't want to. I still feel sick with my sinus infection. Last week I went to the doctor after having a cold for almost two weeks, and having headaches. The doctor said I have a sinus infection. I'm been on antibiotics since then, plus I've been rinsing my sinuses with saline in the neti pot. AND using the humidifier. I thought I was feeling better yesterday but today I had a huge headache again. It's all I could do to work in front of the computer during the day while I have my sinus headache. So at night I'm laying on the couch and not doing stuff in front of the computer. I hope I feel better soon. Seriously, I've never been sick this long before, it'll be 3 weeks on Thursday!

It has been about 12 years since our house exterior has been painted.  We moved in in 2001 and it was painted a couple of years before that.  We hired a painter to paint the exterior of our house, our deck, the trellis above our patio, and also our outside fireplace and BBQ counter. He started last week doing the prep work. He patched stucco and also sanded the paint off our deck.


It actually is totally sanded off now, and we're not painting it, we're staining it a wood color instead.

This is a before photo of the front of our house. You get the general idea what color it is.


We didn't want to rock the boat too much, so we picked similar colors. It was a decision between #1 and #2.

We picked #2, the bottom color, because it seemed more warm and inviting.

Here were the choices for the trim.

We picked the color on the left. Jerry the painter has been working at our house for a few days now, so hopefully I'll have some "after" photos to show soon.

On Saturday we went to the coast and I did an easy run/walk of 2.5 miles to test out my new Nike Free Run+ running shoes. I was sick so I didn't push it. The shoes felt very light and very comfortable, but my legs and feet were not yet used to how flexible and "free" they felt. I felt like my calves, shins, and feet were working harder than normal due to the flexible soles. I think I will get used to them and love them though. I had gone to the Nike website and answered some questions and they gave me 4 choices of shoes that fit my feet and running gait and this was one of them. If you over-pronate, you would need stability shoes and these would not be a good fit for you. I actually under-pronate a little bit when I run, so these shoes are fine for me.

Anyways, after we ran, we went to Beach City Cafe and had lunch. I had the "Son of the Beach" sandwich again and it was delicious. I loved it.


After lunch, Todd rode his bike home while I drove the car home. You can read more about Todd's bike geekness on his blog here.

Yesterday I had lunch with one of my best friends, Meera. We went to Pho Cadao (Vietnamese) in Rancho Bernardo because we both work in RB. I always LOVE getting together with Meera, she's a huge blessing to me and I love her.


We had some fried tofu skin with shrimp paste inside for appetizers. They were delicious!


I had a vegetarian rice vermicelli dish with tofu and eggrolls. It was awesome. Tofu never tasted so good!


Last night I had my hands full with a friend who was having trouble with life and ran away from home. I've known her for 19 years, ever since I was in college and she was a senior in high school. At that time she told me her parental figures were abusing her and begged to stay with me at my apartment, so I let her stay with me for a few months. She went to college and grad school and I thought her life was going to turn out well. She contacted me last week and told me she was in dire straits because her husband and in-laws were abusive to her. She has three kids she didn't plan on, but love them anyways. She's been wanting a divorce because of the lies and abuse from her husband, but he took all their joint money and put it into accounts in his own name and refused her access. She had $1 to her name and didn't have options so she ran away yesterday. I got home from work and she left two messages on my machine saying she ran away and she's at the shopping center near my house. She came and cried and vented, and we let her stay for the night. I think she wanted to stay at our house indefinitely, but we told her it wasn't a good idea this time. I haven't talked to her in years and haven't seen her in decades. It seems selfish of me, but I just can't turn my life upside down to help her right now. I felt somewhat guilty, but I told her she needed to get in contact with her mother and explain the situation. I'm praying for her and will continue to pray for her. I'm very sad for her and thoughts of her situation has consumed me and stressed me out. I'm just not feeling good right now, this, on top of my sinus infection that won't go away. I tend to take on other people's problems and burdens and it really affects me. It's something I need to change in order to free myself mentally. My doctor has referred me to counseling because of this. I've taken on my family's problems as my own, as well as my friends' problems. I think it's unhealthy mentally and emotionally for me and I need to learn how to deal with other people's problems and not take them on myself as such a burden.

This concludes a very long blog post about the last few days. I just hope that I will start to feel better physically soon.