Photoshoot

A couple of weekends ago, Leah and I met with our wedding photographer Courtney to take our engagement photos. We decided to take our photos at Jerusalem Mills, a so called "living history destination" with lots of different buildings and landscapes for varied backgrounds. We were originally planning to do the photoshoot two weeks earlier, but had to push it back due to rain, though I'm glad for the delay -- the extra two weeks allowed for more plants to come out of hibernation and made everything look more like spring.

We had scoped out the site ahead of time to plan where exactly we wanted to take pictures. Plus, Leah looked to Pinterest for inspiration on poses. When we met with Courtney, we were full of ideas. We ended up staying there for over three hours and took well over 600 pictures (while that is a lot, many of them are duplicates as we worked to get each pose just right). So far, only five pictures have been edited, but I'm really happy with the way they turned out.

This is my least favorite -- I'm clearly in the middle of talking and it makes my mouth look weird 

Getting this silhouette image was my idea (and supposedly that covered bridge is haunted, but I didn't notice anything) 

Gotta show off that rock! 

I like how you can see the short, green grass in the foreground and the tall, brown grass in the background 

This is my favorite one so far. Getting the pose just right took a lot of adjusting, but I'm really happy with how it turned out

I'm really happy that we went with Courtney for our photographer, though Leah did the legwork to find her. And according to Courtney, we were really good clients: she said that the fact that we were up for anything made her job easier and a lot more fun.

With how good these are, I'm excited to see how the rest of the pictures turned out.

Ripley's Believe It Or Not

On Saturday, Leah took me out on a date. She's great at finding deals and got a great discount on a pair of tickets to the Baltimore Ripley's Believe It Or Not! museum.

Back when Leah and I first started dating, we went to Atlantic City. While we were walking around the boardwalk, I saw a Ripley's museum there and mentioned how much I loved reading the newspaper features as a kid and that I had a couple of books that collected many of said features. She listened and when she came across a sale on tickets, she asked if I wanted to go. It was sweet of her to remember something so trivial, so of course I said "yes."

The museum was filled with artifacts and reproductions of amazing things. Some were based on people, like the tallest man in recorded history, while others were works of art using unusual media, like giant portraits of Bill and Hillary Clinton made out of hamburger grease. One thing I liked was how there were several displays that focused on Baltimore, like Chessie, Charm City's version of Nessie.

Me standing next to a life-sized animatronic of Robert Wadlow, the tallest man the world has ever known

A(n admittedly creepy) mannequin or Robert Ripley

Ants painted like basketball players (for some reason)

There were also interactive exhibits, like funhouse mirrors, a mirror maze, what was called a "kaleidoscope room," and other attractions, some of which that didn't involve mirrors.

Inside the mirror maze -- finding our way out was much harder than I expected

The kaleidoscope room was pretty disorienting and I didn't stay in it long

We also got to see a "4-D" movie, which was a couple of short cartoons -- one staring the Angry Birds, the other staring the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote (we enjoyed the second one more, probably because we were familiar with the characters) -- that were in 3-D and required glasses and had chairs that shook. It was... okay, but I'm glad that we got to try it out.

We didn't take any pictures of the movie, so here's one of us having fun in the gift shop

After the fun of the museum, we went to a Japanese restaurant that was right on the Chesapeake Bay. Once again, Leah had a coupon. To save on parking, we walked from Ripley's to the restaurant, which was about a mile and a half away. In the rain. We both had umbrellas, so the walk just meant that we were really hungry when we sat down. Luckily, the food was pretty good.

This was Leah's first time trying unagi (eel)

Overall, it was a really fun day and further solidified the fact that Leah's a keeper.

Aphasia Strikes Again

On Monday, at about 3:30 in the afternoon, with about ninety minutes left in the work day, I had an aphasic episode. I've had episodes like this plenty of times before, but this time I was medicated and I wasn't in the middle of transitioning to a new medication.

When it hit me, I was listening to a podcast and immediately lost the ability to understand anything that was said (I recognized all the words as English, but I had no idea what any of it meant). I also felt exhausted and struggled to stay awake -- not that it mattered since I wasn't able to read or write while I was in the throws of the episode. After about twenty minutes, I was able understand what I was listening to, but I was still exhausted and couldn't concentrate. After about five minutes of futilely trying to be productive, I stood up and walked over to the desk of my boss, Magda.

She was talking with one of my coworkers, Chelsea, so I waited for a break in the conversation before speaking up. Before I had the chance to interject, Magda looked up and asked what was wrong (apparently, the feeling of extreme exhaustion was all over my face). I explained what happened, describing aphasia as a kind of micro-seizure, and said I needed to go home. She was completely understanding and Chelsea offered to drive me, which I declined -- I've had aphasic episodes while driving before and never blacked out, so I figured I was fine.

As I drove home, I talked to Leah on the phone. She also expressed concern about me driving while in my fatigued state, but I assured her I was fine. Almost on cue, I felt another aphasic episode begin before evaporating (I can feel them just before they hit, though sometimes they pass). She told me I was lucky and that I should have accepted Chelsea's offer for a ride.

The next morning, I woke up and felt sick. It felt like I had the flu and I was physically weak. I worked from home, though I was not terribly productive. Thankfully, I felt better this morning and was able to put in a full day at the office.

After talking about what happened with my neurologist, she recommended increasing my medication dosage. We increased the dosage for a few weeks last year when I first transitioned onto oxcarbazepine and it made me really drowsy. My neurologist thinks that this time I'll handle it better since my body has acclimated to the medication, but if I feel overwhelmingly tired like I did before, she has a supplemental medication in mind that we can try. For now, we're going to wait and see if simply increasing the dosage will be sufficient.

Perhaps I was foolish to think that my epilepsy problem was solved since it was under control. Maybe my life will be segmented by periods of being in control, punctuated by times when I have to look for new solutions. While I'd rather not have to worry about my epilepsy, it's under control for now and we have a possible remedy lined up if I start to show symptoms again, so things are still pretty good.

Self-induced Sleepiness

As mentioned before, I have to take allergy medication everyday in order to function at my peak. My medication of choice, Flonase, contains low levels of steroids. I had a mild case of bronchitis a few weeks ago and was given a steroid pack to take, which meant I needed to stop using the Flonase for a while and switch to something different. The different medication worked great, so when I had finished the pack, I decided to try using both. However, this made me feel sleepy, so sleepy that I had trouble staying awake at work. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it was the double dose of allergy medication that was causing my drowsiness (despite this exact thing happening before). Not until I had finished off the replacement medication, anyhow.

I have a lousy memory, but this blog helps me recall the past, but only if I review it.

Donut Holes

What happens when you're bored and you have deep fryer in your kitchen?

You make donut holes (which you then take to your fiancee while she's at work).

Easter 2017

Easter was busy for Leah and me. We had decided to host Easter dinner and had invited her family and mine, though not everyone was available. In the end, we had Ian, Sherlin, Leah's dad Ulf, and her younger sisters, Megan and Allison, over. (From now on, when I mention Allison, assume I'm referring to Leah's youngest sister.)

I was a bit ambitious with the meal that I planned, though thankfully it all worked out. We made a spinach salad with strawberries, feta cheese, and sliced almonds; a spiral-cut, honey-glazed ham; sauteed green beans with garlic and cranberries; deep fried sweet potato french fries; and a trifle with blueberries, strawberries, and pound cake for dessert. Leah was a champ on the deep fryer and did a lot of prep work by slicing all of the strawberries and about half of the sweet potatoes. The trifle gave me problems as I didn't have enough pound cake and had to quickly bake another, though I probably ran out because Leah and I kept munching on it before I assembled the cake.

Dinner was great, if a bit crowded in my tiny apartment. I don't usually get to entertain in my home (and this was certainly the biggest group that I've fed here), so it was nice to be able to plan out the meal and execute it -- having Leah as my assistant made it even nicer. After most of the guests left (Megan hung out for a while afterwards), I collapsed on the couch, exhausted but happy.