A year ago today I woke up early and went to a psychiatric clinic to have some blood work, because apparently blood work can even help in the treatment of mental health. Then, I went with Mimi and Tommy to some restaurant in Canton that I can never remember the name of that makes their food Southern-style. I also went on errands with Mimi, and then I went with her to Cici’s, meeting up Bebe and Shane in the process. It was rather exhausting. Even though the day was my birthday, I would have much rather have been able to sleep in since it was my day off.

Being the pessimistic and introverted person I am, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to include that.

This year for my birthday, I woke up early and went to my doctor’s office for my allergy shot. S hugged me for my birthday, we just chatted about random things like normal, she gave me my shot, and I left to go back to the waiting room. I have to wait about 20 minutes to see how I’ll react to my shot. It gets annoying, but I’ve gotten used to it. They have a TV that plays the same thing everyday, and they change it only sparingly.

My giveaway that was a combo of 6birds’ anniversary and my birthday, lasting from those two dates, ended at midnight EST today. Although I’m on the CST timezone, Rafflecopter wouldn’t let me change the time since I didn’t want to upgrade to a paid package with premium features. I mean, if I held giveaways monthly, I can understand why I’d need those features. However, I don’t, so I’ll live with just the basic widget. Jennifer won the necklace, and those of you who sent in the entry for your mailing address will be receiving a cute card in the mail soon. 🙂

I don’t think I’ll have another until around December.

I’ve had good and bad days throughout this year, some worse than others. Sherry explains well that this isn’t exactly predictable. I’m really happy to have found her blog, because her posts on PTSD have helped me to feel less crazy and to realize that I’m not making up the symptoms and effects of it.

On a health note, though, getting that allergy test in January has helped me a lot. I now know why I had such bad reactions to the birth control pills, and if it’s ever recommended for health-related purposes (such as cysts, etc.), I won’t allow it. I’m allergic to yeast and lactose, which is in all birth control pills. Mentioning that you’re allergic to “all birth control” because of their ingredients to a somewhat-handsome ER nurse, by the way, is both frustrating and hilarious, because he asked if I was sure I wasn’t pregnant. Then, to clear that up, I explained that I had to take them for ovarian cysts. Unfortunately, a lot of medications have ingredients like yeast and lactose in them that I’m allergic to. I suppose it doesn’t help that I’m allergic to penicillin, an allergy I knew about prior to the allergy test.

And as of 2013, I can also officially say I have a nut allergy. To stress the severity of my allergies, how nice it is that my dad has nice insurance and how thankful I am to have started the allergy test-and-treatment process, I have an EpiPen.

A downside to all the stress I went through last year, as well as the effects of depression and PTSD, the hair on my left side is much shorter than the hair on my right side. I know I would literally just pull my hair out, but I would pull off full strands. I think that it either finally caught up with me or I cut my hair when I was completely zoned out and unaware of what I was doing. In other words, a haircut for myself is much-needed. It’s going to have to be cut short, to make it even, but hopefully they can layer it. …and possibly even give me some side-swept bangs? No stylist I’ve been to can get it right. -.-

Anyway, this is my birthday update. It’s a rather random and atypical birthday post that you probably don’t anywhere else. 😉

Tonight for dinner, I’m going with Grandmama, Papa, Charan & Marc to Pei Wei. I wanted Chinese and am craving Panda Express, but Panda Express isn’t exactly the type of place to dine and eat a birthday dinner at, nor does it have fortune cookies absentmindedly resting on the drinks (sodas, tea, water, lemonade, etc.) and condiments bar that I can stuff in my purse on the way out…

So I settled for Asian. I’m choosing the sesame chicken. Since I’ve still not passed the kidney stone, I’m going to be drinking water with a lemon or two squeezed into it, since lemons’ citrus selves help break down calcium in kidney stones. I stopped reading the article once it got all scientific on me.

Shout out to…

Stephanie, who emailed me to wish me a happy birthday.

Hiro, Robin and Tori, who tweeted me wishing me happy birthday.

To pass the time, I’ve been watching a cute and funny collection on YouTube for a series called Larva.

And if you want to learn some things about me that you probably won’t find out anywhere else, read my interview on Strike a Prose.