Argh! It's been four days and while my eyes and face look way better than I did on Friday (think ET with a sunburn), I've been really self-conscious about it. Over the weekend, I avoided taking off my sunglasses, and even wore a hat when we went to the LA Times Festival of Books. Sunday I just stayed in, missing our friend David's 40th birthday party. I just felt too alien and ugly to mingle with people. Monday at work, I was very much embarrassed by my new "bad" skin, and I stayed in my seat as much as possible. I guess I could live with the redness, but the bags under my eyes are pretty hideous.
After work today I dropped in at the place I bought the products I'd been using, and my aesthetician (a sweet girl who could probably sell me a used baked potato <-- that's a weird example, isn't it) and the owner both checked me out. Embarrassing. But they both agreed I'm having an allergic reaction (the owner swore I'm only the "second person in 27 years to react like that!"), and with no problem whatsoever, exchanged all the products for Dermalogica stuff. They also reiterated what the doctor said, and that a) there should be no permanent scarring, and b) it should all be a dim memory in 7-10 days. The owner also suggested that I soak a soft cloth washcloth in good ol' vitamin D milk and apply that to my face. We have no milk and I don't feel like going to the market, so I won't be trying it tonight, but that seems like one of those home remedies to sock away in the old mental filing cabinet. As if I have a mental filing cabinet! Or if I do, mine has an invisible door where the rats sneak in and steal my stuff and move shit around, because I can remember hardly anything.
And On To New Topics...
Yesterday, Patrick bought me a mini-trampoline! It's called a rebounder (that was the rejected title of today's post: Irene On the Rebound-er), and I love it. We have it right in the middle of our living room, in front of the TV, and I've been jumping on it happily about five minutes every day. "Every day" = for two days, yeah, yeah. I know five minutes sounds like nothing, but that's some serious exercise for little miss couch potato (hey, I've mentioned potatoes twice in this post. Could someone be craving starches?), and it's a LOT of fun. The instruction manual includes some suggested maneuvers ("Ski Pole" is one of them), but I'm not ready for that yet. Merely jumping up and down and trying to breathe at the same time is enough maneuver for me.
I think I'll go eat something, let my food digest, and then jump some more while I watch last night's "Heroes." I almost watched it while it was on last night, but I've gotten so used to fastforwarding through the commercials, I couldn't stand to sit there. I did see enough to catch a glimpse of Future Hiro, and I LOVE him in 2012! Cute! He looks like Patrick!
