Archive for the ‘eating’ Category

Posted on April 22, 2011 - by Ashley Jackson

Is it 10PM yet?

I told my sleep specialist that I think most of my problem now is that my sleep/wake schedule is so out of whack thanks to years of poor sleep, and that I was going to try to do better with that over the next couple of months. She suggested that if I want to get up at 5AM I should go to bed at 10PM. Staying up until 10PM is a lot harder than it used to be, back when I couldn’t sleep. (Was that really only a few months ago?) Especially since I downed 50 mg of doxepin, 3 mg of melatonin, and a combo with 3 more mg of melatonin and various sleep-promoting things in it at 9PM. The past two nights I’ve gone to bed at 9:30 or 10PM and fallen asleep within a half an hour, but I’m still having trouble getting out of bed in the morning. This morning I managed to get up at 7AM, and I have my alarm set for 7AM tomorrow morning, too, even though it’s a Saturday. No more sleeping for 10 hours just because I can now…!

I’ve been craving Chinese food, so I planned to call and order take-out from the Chinese restaurant near work and then pick it up when I walked over to get my new prescription during lunch. It turned out several co-workers were planning to go over there for lunch at the buffet, so I joined them instead. I’m kind of proud of how different my plate looks now versus a few months ago.

Veggies, veggies, everywhere…and some salmon (most of which I didn’t eat–it was hot!), a few bites of sesame chicken, a cream cheese rangoon, and an eggroll. And some fried rice–not as much as it looks like, since it was all on top of the veggies mixed with crab (which I didn’t eat, I just wanted the veggies).

My plans for tomorrow are to get up at 7AM (I hope!), take Mr. Heathcliff for a long walk, get some early morning work done, and then walk to the store to pick up a few things, including the broccoli and cheese for the broccoli casserole I’m taking to lunch at my brother’s house.

15 minutes to go….

Posted on April 20, 2011 - by Ashley Jackson

The Spicy Clucker

I really hate dislike restaurants where you have to order things by cutesy names. For instance, I’m not a big fan of Moe’s. I also don’t like going to Moe’s because when you walk in the employees all yell “Welcome to Moe’s!”, which I find to be annoying both when I walk in (because it calls attention to the fact that I’ve just walked in) and while I’m trying to eat.

Therefore, I find ordering at Tomato Jake’s to be slightly annoying. This is the Spicy Clucker with fries.

It’s good. I’ve gotten it on my last two trips to the restaurant. But it’s a spicy chicken wrap. Why can’t they just call it that? Why?

Oh well. They have trivia, so they’re still cool.

Also, I felt a little awkward taking a photo of my food, because on that episode of Criminal Minds I watched last night (the one I’d already seen twice), one of the victims, unknowingly being watched by her soon-to-be murderer, takes a picture of her breakfast at an al fresco diner and posts it online along with “MMM! Scones!” Fortunately, I haven’t been strangled by someone seeking facial symmetry yet.

Posted on April 19, 2011 - by Ashley Jackson

I lied…

…but when I said I’d update later that week three weeks ago, I really meant I’d update in three weeks? Yeah.

I had another visit with my sleep specialist today…no more appointments for two months! But I’ve had three dentist appointments in the past two weeks (one cleaning, one treatment consultation, and one round of fillings) and I’ve got another one coming up Thursday, and then Monday I have a consultation with an oral surgeon about having my wisdom teeth removed, and I need to make an appointment to get my blood pressure medication adjusted because being able to sleep is lowering my BP (yay!) but now it’s going too low and making me dizzy…

…so I’m very happy that the Federal government didn’t shut down, so I have money to pay for all of this and sick leave to take.

The car loan is currently around $1040, with a $200 payment pending, and I’ve been writing in my spare time and should have another $150 to throw at it next week.

Oh, and those tornadoes that hit central North Carolina on Saturday? That was scary, and I’m not ashamed to say that at one point when the hail was beating against my sliding glass door and shingles were flying around up in the air that I picked up the dog, wrapped him in a blanket, sat him on top of the washer in the laundry room, and then climbed in after him. Fortunately, my part of north Raleigh didn’t see too much damage, but downtown and northeast Raleigh got hit pretty bad, as did Sanford, the town I grew up in and live in/near from the time I was six until I left for college. Here is a picture of the building I was baptized in…

Fortunately, although there were deaths both in Sanford and Raleigh, all my family and friends are safe and still have houses.

—

Here’s a picture of Cliffy.

Here’s a picture of one of a couple of trips to China Queen over the past couple of months.

Here is a picture of a single slice of pizza from Tomato Jake’s in Durham.

Here’s what I had one Friday night when Alison and I went to some Italian place in Raleigh, the name of which I can’t remember…Pulcinela’s?

Salad with house dressing…

…and cheese manicotti.

Here…is a picture of Heathcliff on my bed.

Here is an unfortunately blurry picture of the spinach and mushroom enchiladas I was raving about. Soooooo good.

Here is a meal that is two-thirds composed of Aldi products: the steak and the asparagus both came from their freezer section.

And here is one of the awesome veggie pizzas from Aldi that I took a chance on and bought. I picked up two and ate them both within a week.

It had zucchini on it. For real.

And here are two of my current worries…

I am actually kind of petrified of the dentist, and teeth, and things being in my mouth. I hadn’t been to the dentist in five years since I went in for a cleaning two weeks ago. Fortunately, I found a great dentist’s office (in the same office park as my sleep specialist!) and even though I was almost in tears after the cleaning at my exam (from the stress, not because they were mean to me), I was actually pretty okay while getting fillings in three teeth on Friday. Unfortunately, the wisdom teeth — all four of which are impacted — have to come out because the dentist can’t work on my back teeth with them in there. I manned up and made the consultation appointment with the oral surgeon, but I have a full-scale freak-out planned for the day before my surgery, whenever that is.

I am very pointedly staying up until 10PM in an attempt to fix my sleep schedule (now that I can sleep), so I may as well watch this episode of Criminal Minds that I’ve already seen like twice. I will post again later this week (promises, promises…)…