Donna’s eye view

Although Murphy’s Law was in full force as we attempted to shoot footage for our video project at work, it was an absolutely wonderful day. We went on the road and hit various locations in search of the best background with the least amount of ambient noise. Unfortunately, unpredictable weather made it difficult, at best, to find a suitable location and we ended up driving to Makapuu, through the Windward side, to Sand Island and finally to Kakaako where we did the bulk of the shooting. How often can an office grunt like me get out, ride around the island with a camera and get paid? Not often enough.

Factors like wind, planes flying overhead (two locations were in a direct flight path of the airport), noisy cars, and homeless people fighting in a park made the shoot a challenge. (Although the altercation was not physical, the verbal shots were pretty intense with F-words and screaming, which made it pretty tense for several minutes.)

Our “talent” was very accommodating and understanding, a genuinely nice person whom I had a wonderful time talking to as we drove 70+ miles around the island in search of a good spot.

It’s going to be pretty interesting when it’s time to start editing (next week). I hope the footage is decent. And, on another note, Derek’s “reflecto-thingy” (lite disc reflector) was a life saver!

All in all, it was an awesome day of “work.” If only this were my real job instead of just a special project! I could definitely get used to this.

Day 30 of 30

Whenever I see an envelope bearing my infertility specialist’s return address, I immediately cringe because I know that means more money out of our pocket. Thankfully, our medical insurance has covered a HUGE portion of the procedures thus far, but there’s still a sizable portion that we are responsible for that makes a significant dent in our budget. We recently paid $915 and today’s mail brought another bill for $495.41. And remember, I still have not done the frozen embryo transfer (FET) procedure yet, so I’m expecting more bills in the upcoming months. (I’m praying for a large tax return. Come on, Uncle Sam, pay up!)

We joked that this baby is costing us money before he/she/they are even born. But, you know what, if the Lord blesses us with a child(ren), it will all be worth it.

In the meantime, we’ll keep praying — and paying.

Day 29 of 30

I’m at the home stretch for NaBloPoMo and I nearly forgot to post something today, perhaps for lack of interesting events and/or recent epiphanies. I knew there would be a day like this sooner or later in the month, and here it is, two days from the finish line.

Unfortunately, I’m still fighting off the remnants of a cold, so my fuzzy head is inhibiting my ability to make something up. So, we’ll go with this for today. An entry about having nothing to write about. How novel is that? But, I posted — and isn’t that the point of NaBloPoMo anyway?

Day 28 of 30

A bunch of health-conscious co-workers went for food sensitivity testing and recommended that I do the same. Basically, you give a vial of your blood, they send it off to a lab, and you get a full report of what foods are toxic to your body. Food sensitivity differs from a food allergy, as you will typically not have an immediate reaction to a food that you are sensitive to. However, food sensitivity is known to cause symptoms such as headaches, chronic sinus congestion, aching muscles and joints or feeling drained of energy. All of the above symptoms pretty much sum up a typical day for me, so I thought it would benefit me to take the test. The test was covered completely by my insurance, otherwise would have cost $1060. (Ouch!)

Yesterday, I went to obtain my results, which took a few weeks to come back. The old adage, “ignorance is bliss” definitely applies here. When I saw my list of “reactive” foods, I was saddened to see some of my staples on the list. Here’s my list of reactive foods and the rating. +1 is least reactive (bad) to +4, which is the most reactive (worst).

Beans, Lima (+1)
Cantaloupe (+1)
Cheese (+2)
Coconut (+1)
Egg (+3)
Milk, Cow’s (+2)
Milk, Goat’s (+1)
Peanut (+2)
Pepper, Green (+1)
Rice (+1)
Rye (+1)
Safflower (+1)
Tomato (+1)
Walnut (+1)
Wheat (+2)
Yeast, Baker’s (+3)
Yeast, Brewer’s (+3)

There are some challenging items to avoid on the list. For example, rice. RICE! How can you avoid eating rice in Hawaii? That’s borderline sacrilege! The unfortunate thing is that wheat and baker’s yeast is also on the list. That pretty much rules out any mainstream starches. No wheat bread or baked goods. The booklet that was provided with my results features a “food substitutions” section. For wheat, it lists “breads, baked goods, and gravy made with flours from barley, buckwheat, rye, oat, corn, teff or amaranth, or corn tortillas.” You normally don’t find that stuff in your local grocery store. I guess I’ll have to check out the nearest Down to Earth store. The last time I went in there, I was so overwhelmed by the selection of products made with ingredients that I had never heard of and could not pronounce that I left without buying anything.

Being lactose intolerant, I figured cow’s milk would make the list. However, eggs is another difficult one. I can do without eating eggs for breakfast, but just think of all of those great recipes that contain eggs. Doh!

The program says that you should eliminate your reactive foods for 12 weeks, monitoring your food intake on a food journal as well as tracking your symptoms. Eliminating the reactive foods from your diet is a detox of sorts. The doctor recommended three different herbal/enzyme pills to take in conjunction with the program. Three follow-up appointments are scheduled with the doctor to review your progress and after the 12 weeks, you begin a process of reintroducing the reactive foods into your diet, starting with the least reactive foods one by one. You can bet that the first thing to be reintegrated into my diet will be RICE! They also recommend following up with another blood test in six months to see if you are still reactive to those foods or if new ones have emerged.

Before I start the program, I wanted to talk it over with my infertility specialist since we are so close to my frozen embryo transfer (FET) procedure, scheduled for January 4, 2008. Needless to say, it probably wouldn’t hurt to start weaning myself off of the reactive foods, but I wanted to ask him about the pills first. I am very cautious about any medication, supplements or vitamins I put in my body these days. I don’t want anything to interfere with my FET.

I will definitely be tracking my progress here once I begin the program. I’m confident that there will be a lot of ranting and raving involved.

Day 27 of 30

Hubby recently took the combo TV/DVD from our computer room to work to watch “training videos” (uh-huh, sure) since the office TV broke. Although I don’t watch much TV, and rarely ever have it on while I’m on my computer (which is always), I do use the TV/DVD to play my exercise videos. The TV/DVD has been MIA for about a week now and I’ve hardly missed it — which sort of tells you how often I get around to exercising.

Here’s a little conversation between Hubby and I, which is pretty typical, but all in fun:

Hubby: Do you need that TV back soon?

Me: No, not really. I hardly watch it anyway.

Hubby: Okay, good, the guys at work want to use it a while longer.

Me: Sure. Now, if you took my Mac, I’d be like, “I need it back NOW. No, I needed it back yesterday!”

Hubby: I wouldn’t touch your Mac. Not if I valued my life.

Me: That’s right. Don’t touch the Mac if you know what’s good for you.

Hubby: Oh, wow. Now I know where I stand in relation to the Mac. That’s sad.

Me: Don’t worry. I wouldn’t kill you, I might maim you though.

Hubby: I’m not talking to you.

Just thought I’d share since I thought it was funny as heck. And besides, I might as well be blogging since Hubby’s not talking to me right now anyway.

Of course, I’m kidding.

Day 26 of 30

It’s the end of the year and it’s time for me to create a family photo calendar for my in-laws. Ever since I started making them back in 2003, it has been an annual tradition and a gift that the family looks forward to receiving at Christmas.

This year, as I was going through my iPhoto library, I was disappointed by the lack of selection of shots. In previous years, the kids were younger and easier to get in front of the camera. Mugging for my camera was great fun for them before, now it seems they’re too cool or too busy to pose for a picture. This year seemed to be a bit more challenging, as they were always more interested in playing the Wii; running around the house, screaming their heads off; or watching TV. Gathering them for a group shot is akin to moving a mountain. Correction, moving a mountain might be less taxing.

It makes me question whether I would ever make a good baby/child photographer. Perhaps in a setting without as many distractions… but our family gatherings abound with distractions galore. Add my lack of skill with children and you have a recipe for disaster. Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but it certainly doesn’t add up to many good shots.

You’d be surprised, finding 12 stunning shots can be quite the challenge. Unfortunately, this year, I couldn’t find “stunning” — so, we’ll have to settle for “above average.” To me, that’s just plain disappointing.

My first new year’s resolution on the docket: Take more pictures of family — even if I have to tie them down.

Day 25 of 30

Okay, not really. I just thought it was ironic with all this talk about my rock star aspirations that I got a chance to jam with my very own virtual Rock Band at Mahealani’s place.

I’m terrible at games like Dance Dance Revolution, which is based on a similar concept, with the descending colors that indicate what/where to step/fret/strum/hit. My first couple of tries on the drum set were absolutely atrocious, but once I got the timing and let myself relax, it was much better and I actually had a lot of fun with it. The guitar was a little easier, but I found the drumming more entertaining — and a little truer to playing the actual instrument. Only one gripe, I wish they had cymbals positioned like a real drum set. The cymbal was positioned on the same level as the other drums, which was a little weird.

If I had this game at home, I could see myself playing it for hours on end, playing and replaying a song until I scored 100%. I’m obsessive-compulsive like that. That’s how I used to practice my guitar, literally for hours, going over a problematic section or riff in the song — over and over and over until I could play it proficiently. Luckily, we don’t own any game consoles, else I’d be at Wal-mart at this very moment picking up the Rock Band game package.

Kamu is scary-good at playing the guitar on both Rock Band and Guitar Hero III. Just before we left, he was dueling with the devil on Guitar Hero III on the Wii. And, I think he was winning!

Thanks for making me a rock star for the night, folks! (Check out the video below.) Good fun!

Day 24 of 30