It's been a fantastic day.

So for my birthday this year, Osaka and I talked it over, and I'm purchasing a doll on layaway via Luts, just in time for their summer event. I've made two of my three payments per the layaway agreement and in two weeks I will make the final payment and will have properly secured a Ttory (for whom I have always had a soft spot) in the Real Skin Brown, with a lovely wig, in "natural black". Osaka has graciously agreed to do the faceup for me, and I am looking forward to having a beautiful tan MSD.

In addition to that I have had a fortuitous day today. I woke up in excruciating pain with a migraine coming into fullswing, but decided to take something for it and gut it out for adventuring with Osaka and Ringo. And Adventure we did.

First we ran into an old friend, who is also a doll friend (Syrinfox, who does the beautiful feathered wings), at the Mongolian BBQ place we went for lunch. I was peering at her baby boy because he looked very familiar (I recognized him from a recent facebook post about him eating) but I hadn't looked up at Mom, until she greeted us with a smile. We caught up briefly and agreed that we should meet up and talk dolls or just hang out soon. It was a very pleasant surprise.

We then stopped by our favorite Asian decor etc store and Osaka got me a beautiful pink dragon that's scaled as a lovely LARGE statue for SD scaled decor. She got herself a couple of tidbits as well, a smaller dragon, and a tiny Guan Yu.

Then we hit up the mall, Osaka got a gorgeous tote with an octopus on it, at Francescas, I got her some Autobot earrings at Hot Topic, she got Dynasty Warriors 8 Extreme Legends at Game Stop, and then we hit up Build A Bear, where Ringo got Sweetiebell (He wanted Scootaloo but they were out), and I got the VERY LAST How to Train Your Dragon 2 hoodie for one of my stuffies.

Then we stopped at Barnes and Noble in the cafe for a snack and for me to take another pain killer. After a bit when we'd finished out tidbits we decided to take in a movie, and chose Malificent over Godzilla because my poor head could not take all the explosions today.

So we made our way over to the theater and were about an hour and change early but went on in. I was wearing my bright turquoise "Free Hugs" shirt pictured with an aggressive looking bear, and got hugged by two (teen) guys who were really chill and amusing. The first looked at me and said, with a voice of almost awe "Free Hugs?" and extended his arms in invitation. I smiled and leaned in and laughed and give him a hug, and he promptly turned to his friend and said "Dude! Look at his shirt! Free hugs!" And so I hugged his friend as well. It was so much fun, and a reminder of why I like Virginia Beach quite so much.

We sat in a quiet remote part of the outer theater area until it our theater was open for seating. I got us popcorn and soda, while Ringo and Osaka secured us some nice seats. It was a FANTASTIC film, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who may have been on the fence about it.

Afterwards we walked home and I took more pain medicine and relaxed on the sofa while Osaka and Ringo went on to the store and got dinner.

It's been a beautiful and fantastic day, despite my persistent pain and discomfort and I look forward to another beautiful day tomorrow.

The only downside to our adventuring, is that I missed my window of opportunity to speak with Steve via skype. Hopefully we can do so tomorrow. I might also go swimming and play with more of my dolls. :)

I apologize for any big spelling or grammatical errors. I'm currently pretty heavily drugged so that I can function and it makes focusing on the details a little difficult.

Ichigo is awesome.

I've gotten kind of bad about posting regularly. I took a week of vacation in April and spent the whole week listless and aggravated. I kept trying to figure out what to do with my LONG day, and ended up staring at my computer screen in frustration, or playing the same video games for hours, but annoyed about it. I wish I was taking that vacation time in like a month. Each time I've stepped down the Lithium (twice now) my head gets clearer. It feels like my head has been wrapped in cotton, and I'm peeling it away and can finally breathe.

Last night, for the first time in I don't know how long, I actually played with Ichigo. I pulled him down off my MSD bench, and changed his eyes back to his rainbow eyes, changed his clothes, his wig, and just looked at him, at his faceup, his hands, his tiny sculpted belly button.

I love all of my dolls, but Ichigo is particularly special. He was my third doll, and the second that I thought I would never ever have a chance to get. He doesn't have a rare irreplaceable (Rollingpumpkin) faceup like Elli, so I've always been more comfortable handling him, and after the limited posing of the old Dream of Doll body and the Customhouse Little Junior body, I was incredibly charmed by his similar but more charming in every way body. The Little Junior body is beautiful but doesn't pose well, and the Dream of Doll body was limited and seemed featureless in comparison.

Ichigo is also incredibly special in that he is the only doll from the Nick/Brittany era that is not completely tainted with bad memories. I had a rocky bit with him, when I was living in Texas and everything was in flux, but after all this time, of the six that I had at the time, I don't touch two of them at all, I traded one away, I completely made one of them over, TWICE, and the other had a major identity crisis before I was able to deal with them again. Ichigo had a rough patch and slowly as I've gotten to a better place, the little spark that made him special has returned to brightness.

I was going to take photos but I'm tired of taking photos indoors in the dark, and it's grey and rainy today so I can't get good shots outside. I will try and get photos this weekend I think, and maybe play around a bit with some of the other dolls.

Catching up. Life is busy.

I've needed to do an updated post for a bit now but things have just been a bit crazy.

To start, Ringo was brought back home with a positive diagnosis of Aspergers after about two weeks. They were pretty sure the first day, but had questions for Osaka, who took him home on the Thursday of the week following his initial hospitalization. While Osaka was there they also confirmed that she has Aspergers, and that Ringo has the same potential for being high functioning like she is.

I reached a level of fed up with my physical side effects, from my meds, and my inability to find an adequate replacement for Dr T. I spoke with my medical doctor, after about a week of research and pondering, about stepping down the doses and getting off the psych meds.

The Saphis I was able to stop cold turkey because I'd only been on it about a month. The Lithium we are stepping down 300gm every two weeks. I started at 1200mg daily, and have been on 900mg daily for a week with noticeable improvement. I'll be at 900mg for the rest of this week and will start 600mg on Sunday. Once I hit the end of that week I will go back in and see Dr C to make sure everything is copacetic, and then go down to 300gm daily, then maybe 100mg before stopping entirely.

My appetite is back. I gained weight on Lithium but I was nauseous ALL THE TIME. I still am right after I take my morning dose, and for part of the evening after my evening dose. To compensate I had been eating regularly and healthily but in the past I've always done better with my weight if I eat when I'm hungry and just DON'T if I'm not. Eating regularly and feeling sick, I gained back everything I had slowly and carefully lost over a couple of years. My skin is also clearing up, my headaches are getting less severe, and I feel like I am able to think clearly. I also feel more playful. I was just goofing off with Osaka and Ringo last night, just all of us in giggles, when it was pointed out that I hadn't been like this in over a year.

The medicine made me super serious all of the time, and react angrily to most input. I do have a wicked temper, but honestly, unmedicated I react and then it's over. I apologize if I've reacted out of bounds, and then it's OVER. No long term drama, no grudges, unless it's about something really important and there is a serious miscommunication.

Anyway that's enough blather. TLDR: Ringo is home safe with a diagnosis, I'm going off the Psych meds under medical supervision.