6 Pack of Wine?

This seemed somewhat bizarre to me, so I had to share it- I'm not sure I could get over the yogurt-top lid but it is a genius idea for picnics, airplane rides, and the like. What do you think? I think I'd rather have the bottle...

Single-Serving Wine Glass is a Perfect Picnic or Party Ware

We drink beer from bottles, but even with a small single-serving wine bottle there is always a glass – so why not combine the two in to one and save everyone some hassle? These plastic glasses might not go over well at a formal dinner party, but for a toast-on-the-go or quick picnic they could just be the perfect table(-free)wares.

One inventor did just that, and then founded Wine Innovationsaround the concept. Though his yogurt-style, peal-off lid initially did not go over well with potential investors it ultimately has led to booming sales in Great Britain.

Think about it: sports games, large celebrations, all without the worry of broken glass underfoot and with the easy-carry advantage of walking around with non-spill, pre-filled glasses of wine. Hopefully they can do not just red and white but sparkling wines as well, since these would be ideal for something like a sizable New Years Eve event.

Whether this one-use disposable partyware is a step in the right direction in terms of sustainability is another question. Still, the units can be recycled, and surely it is at least a better design than handing out both miniature bottles and plastic cups (as they do on airplanes, etc…) for wine.

Little Miss Piggy

About 2 weeks ago, I contracted poison ivy for the first time. Yep... on top of the RSD. I had rashes on my face, neck, and both arms and legs. Fun stuff- I'm sure I was miserable to be around for the first couple of days. The doctor gave me a steroid shot and steroids to take for a week and since then my skin has calmed down tremendously. I still have rashes which are somewhat raised and occasionally itch but the worst is over.
Now since this whole debacle started, I have been ravenously hungry due to the steroids. I am usually pretty diligent about what I eat but in the last couple of weeks, I have thrown all caution or hesitation to the wind! For example, eating a baked potato with all the trimmings at 3am and then continuing to rummage through the fridge eating pineapple AND then moving on to the pantry where I made myself a nutella sandwich before going back to bed. Absolutely disgusting. 
My reason for bringing this up is that I need to get back on track and be more careful about what I eat. Not so much for weight reasons but for pain reasons. In fact, most people don't realize that what they eat has a serious bearing on how they feel. Just one example is eating sugar of any kind increases pain and inflammation throughout the body even in a healthy person. Something to keep in mind is that many foods that we don't necessarily categorize as 'sugar' may turn into sugar once our bodies start metabolizing it. Potatoes are good examples of foods that get converted into sugar as it is digested. 
Another easy way to remember to eat healthy is "eat the Four F's and avoid the Five C's". The four F's are 1) Fresh Fruit 2) Fresh Vegetables 3) Fish 4) Fowl. The five C's to avoid are cookies, cake, chocolate, cocktails, and candy. Generally, I think a good motto or at least the one that I try to live by is "everything in moderation". There is definitely a time and place for cookies and beer but eating the whole box by yourself should probably be avoided.
So in the spirit of tabula rasa or starting with a clean slate, let's all try to be mindful of what we eat and choose foods that are a little healthier- I'm going to severely limit my sugar intake and stop raiding the fridge in the middle of the night!

Dum spiro, spero. While I breathe, I hope.

One year ago to this day, I had the last of two surgeries to implant a spinal cord stimulator in my lumbar spine to treat RSD/CRPS in my left leg. Less than two weeks later, I had quit my teaching position in Phoenix, Az and was moving back home to live with my parents in Forth Worth, Texas. As the one year anniversary of my surgery and move to Texas approached, it was hard to not look back over the last year without a sense of disappointment. It was with the same nostalgic feeling that people get near New Year's when they are reflecting on their accomplishments and failures in the past year, but my reflections tended towards all the days I had spent in bed because of pain. So many days wasted, so many days that blur together because there was nothing memorable about them. What proved even more difficult was remembering to keep a positive attitude in spite of everything. It's so very easy to become discouraged when life doesn't go the way you wanted or expected it would- but then I guess that's life, uh? 
I've toyed around with the idea of starting a blog several times in the past year but lacked the inspiration and concept to keep me driven -until recently. Unlike Phoenix, DFW lacks any real community for RSD/CRPS suffers and I've had real difficulty finding other chronic pain support groups as well. I frequently attended symposiums and other groups raising awareness about peripheral neuropathies after being diagnosed with RSD in Decemeber 2009 but I've had trouble finding much of anything since I moved to DFW last summer. Chronic pain is already an isolating condition with being able to meet with others who have the same condition, let alone not having any empathetic support. And so my purpose for starting this blog is two fold:
  1) to reach out to others: I want to inspire and support others while spreading information about RSD/CRPS and other neuropathies.  
  2) to learn to control the parts of my life that I have control over and to learn to let go of the parts that I have no control over: I don't want to spend another day focusing on how my life has changed for the worse and focusing on all the things I had planned that at the moment are not possible to accomplish. There is still so much I can do and I should be focusing on that fact! As long as I am alive and breathing, I should have hope!
And so starting today, for one whole year, I will post at least one thing a day- whether it be a photograph I've taken or a painting I've made, an article I found inspiring or an obstacle that needs overcoming, I will post it to this blog so that next July 20th, 2012 I will not have let another year be taken away from me. Instead I will be able to look back and point to all that I've accomplished and learned... and God willing I will inspire others in the process.