Day 131: A Year to the Day

Yesterday was my last day of work. I spent most of the day crying whenever anyone said bye, talking a lot, and finishing up payroll. It was kind of a blur, but it was good. My job went in between awesome and tech support hell, but for all my complaints, I loved my co-workers. It was bittersweet. Waiting in my job was killing me, and now.. and now.. Well, it still doesn't seem real.

I woke up this morning thinking about it, and felt a bit weepy and sad, with the realization that I forgot to enter my hours yesterday. It was a hard feeling to shake, but I feel pretty whole now, if also wholly exhausted. Working at Uncommon was.. well.. Uncommon, and a different experience to anything I had done completely. The past year has been amazing for me. Tech support has taught me more patience than any human deserves to learn, and I have grown more independent and happy with myself. I have been slowly losing weight, learning to cook better, eat better, shop better. I've grown in relation to my friends and parents. I've become more of a bitch. It's been.. a good year, if stressful, and with a Matt shaped hole in my life. July 21st, 2008 to July 21st 2009. I'll miss it.

In other news, I got all my information on my blood tests back from the doctor. My blood sugar dropped 10 points, to 91. I am no longer pre-diabetic!!1 My goal for the end of the year is still 180 pounds, and to see if I can get my levels even lower. I'm so happy, and I feel awesome.

My total cholesterol also dropped 27 points, my LDL dropped 13, though I did lose a bit of my HDL, too. It turns out my HDL was so high the first time, that despite my high total cholesterol, I still had half the average risk of heart disease. A good goal to work toward would be getting all the levels within acceptable ranges, and boosting my HDL. I'm not sure how to do that, but it's secondary to everything else. This year has taught me I CAN do it, and that's something that I need repeated, especially at the edge of such a dramatic change like this.

Also, my sister recently found out she has ovarian cysts, small but frequent, on both ovaries. She was diagnosed for PCOS, but we're both Italian hairy, and she works out for three our four hours a day, every day, so it seems unlikely she'd be insulin resistant. The treatment, of course, is taking birth control and managing your weight, with drugs to help you with your blood sugar if you are becoming diabetic. I never really thought I had PCOS, though considering I'm already doing the treatment for it for other reasons, I'm not worried. I was told by my doctor I should have children by the age of 30 if I do have it, since the changes of having children afterward are much slimmer for people with PCOS. Babies in less than seven years? I.. I think maybe you should ask me in 5 years how I feel about that.

In great news, though, Matt found this, the center for fucking GETTING A SOCIOLOGY DEGREE IN THE INTERNET. HOLY. DICKS. This is what I want, and Edinburgh is only an hour from Glasgow. Th idea of going here, researching the internet.. I don't even have words for happy it makes me. In England, the PhDs are shorter since they are all research. On the one hand, that is awesome, because it'll be lovely to have a huge chunk of my life not dedicated to endless schooling. On the other hand, I LOVE endless schooling, and talking in class is one of my favorite things to do and more effective ways to learn. I'll have to TA or take other classes on the side to satisfy that thinking, social requirement.

I still have to pack, have my goobye party, pack, call my family, pack, and figure out when Matt is getting here. I'm so terrified, and excited. Also, Matt and I have a temporary wedding page set up. As the day gets closer, it'll have information, pictures, wish lists, etc etc. Right now it's only a place holder, but cute. Check it out.