this is my life

Health lesson of the day: I wrote a 20 page paper on the HPA axis (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) the major part of the neuroendocrine system that deals with stress... but i'll spare you the details and give a short overview i stole off the internet

The physiological effects of stress:
Seventy-five to ninety percent of all doctors visits are due to stress-related ailments and stress-related disorders. Chronic acute stress leads to an out of balance biochemistry with elevated cortisol and suppressed serotonin. These biochemical markers of stress in turn lead to ill health and psychosocial disorders. Consequently, stress plays a major causative role in both physical and mental health.
--increased catecholamines
-- increased corticotropin
--increased cortisol
Chronic stress creates excessive levels of cortisol in the brain, impairing the function of the hippocampus, leading to neuronal atrophy and destruction of neurons, decreased short term and contextual memory, and poor regulation of the endocrine response to stress.
--neuoronal atrophy and destruction of neurons
--decreased short term memory
--decreased contextual memory
Chronic stress affects the immune system by increasing sympathetic activity and decreasing cellular immunity. Immune cells migrate to different parts of the body and can worsen autoimmune and allergic conditions. Over time, this creates a suppression of the natural positive acute mobilization of immune cells to the point of challenge.
--increased sympathetic activity decreases cellular immunity
The effects of chronic stress can create significant damage to the cardiovascular system by increasing the risk of coronary artery disease, elevating blood pressure, increasing atherosclerosis, increasing risk of myocardial infarction, increasing the risk of diabetes, and increasing the likelihood of obesity.

Basically, not only am i becoming incredibly unhealthy, i'm getting dumber as well. great.

speaking of dumb, i was doing a couple hill runs (jogs) in the parking lot tonight since it was pitch black when i got home from work (again). i had put hand weights at the top to do some bicep curls in between sets. about the fifth run up i realized i only had one hand weight at the top instead of the two i started with. i must have not put the weight back in the divet i was using to hold it in place and i guess it rolled away. only me.

side note, in case you don't get a newspaper or watch tv:
DELL ACQUIRES PEROT SYSTEMS FOR $3.9 BILLION

don't worry, we found out today they'll be paying cash. not really sure exactly what it means at this point. dell has said they aren't wanting to downsize us but every merger comes with some sort of reorganization. all i know is that by january dell will be paying my salary and my benefits. who knows, maybe i'll get a new laptop.

oh, whitney

this is a girl after my heart:

she was trying to block out the sounds of her mommy yelling at her to stop climbing on things:

obviously, this is not whitney, but i absolutely love this picture of nate and his boys:

day trippin'

on saturday, my friend, jennifer, and i went to new hampshire and hiked mt. monadnock. then, we went to the beach. we had perfect weather and beautiful scenery. all-in-all a great day.


nobody warned me you were supposed to be experienced

a clearing about 1/3 of the way up

apparently everybody in the north east decided to hike on saturday. the point of the picture is to see how straight up the "trail" is

from the top:

rocks:

seriously, straight up and slippery

token feet picture

dear God, thanks for making mountains

ugh. i thought i had these in order, but apprently not.

house on the beach. looks a little fairytaleish to me. i expect a carosel

feet

kind of looks like a picture in a magazine

rule for the beach: no nudity

seagull

sailboats

beach houses

rock that looks like a flower

august happenings

this is simply going to be a post of stolen pictures.

i'm heartbroken that i couldn't be at radhika's wedding; apparently it was amazing.

some of the henna on radhika for her wedding. check out the level of detail. normally it takes 8-10 hours, but radhika is small so it only took 5-6:

arms. her feet are just as detailed:

wedding day. technically, i think it was wedding day two, but this was at the ceremony. beautiful:

the happy couple:

Mr. and Mrs. Patel:

with trina at the reception:

whitney has started walking and is getting into everything. seriously, you can't leave her alone for two seconds or she has climbed onto something dangerous or destroyed everything in her path. but, she sure looks cute doing it.

she loves climbing onto the dining room chairs. this time eating mal's breakfast:

mal turned 5! she had a puppy/pool party and couldn't have been more excited. this kid is obsessed with puppies. allison did an amazing job making the party perfect.

puppy pinata (side note: allison and dave installed a new sliding door you can see in the background):

bone cake. there was also bone shaped watermelon and bone shaped jello jigglers:

puppy ears for the hair. a puppy collar. a puppy shirt:

since it is rainy/nasty i decided to make french onion soup last night. it was delicious!

you know you're not in texas anymore...

i got told today that if i got caught with my pepper spray (of which i bought off the shelf at academy) i would not only get it confinscated i would get fined. so, i decided to look it up. this may be the most ridiculous thing i think i've ever read:

What is the pepper spray law in Massachusetts? Massachusetts residents may only purchase defense pepper sprays from licensed Firearms Dealers in that state. You must have Firearms Identification card ( FID ).

side note: i was jogging tonight and somebody leaned out their window to yell at me and rear ended the car in front of them...hahahaha.. stupid people... that's what they deserve for harrassing me.

update

it has been brought to my attention that i have failed to blog the whole month of july. there are two reasons for that. 1. i'm lazy (and i work a lot, which makes me tired) 2. my life is boring (and when i do do something fun i forget my camera and posts without pictures kind of suck). so, i'm going to try and recollect the important things from the month of july, starting with megan's visit. normally, i would rearrange the pictures so they are in the proper order, but i've noticed some slightly ocd tendencies lately and am trying to be less structured.

megan's visit in totally random order:

we were in downtown boston for the 4th of july, along with about 100,000 other people. best fireworks show ever.

i asked megan to cook the bacon on the balcony so it didn't stink up my apartment all day:

this is for phil:

this would make a great wall picture:

random building in the north end:

on the freedom trail:

completely innapropriate statue in the boston commons:

another questionable statue:

these statues were dressed for the fourth:

this alley leads to my office:

dunkin donuts across the street from the hospital:

this is where i work:

the outside of the hospital:

as opposed to an unprofessional ambulance?

apparently i'm a jerk and ruin picutres:

that's better:

Megan "i want to take a picture of something i'd never see in texas":

doesn't this look delicious?

church around harvard:

living statue:

at the top of mt. wachussettes:

mini waterfall

i don't normally post pictures of my rear, but i slipped and slid down a rock on my backside and it was pretty funny:

this is the stream of water that was flowing over the huge rock that led to my wet rear end:

megan:

view from the top:

trail:

i love my sister:

i promise you megan is in this picture. can you find her?

trail:

it rained for weeks before megan came. hence, a really muddy hike:

us:

this is part of the mound of salt that will be used to salt the road once winter comes to boston:

lobstermen:

does anyone else think it is funny that there is a public pool within the harbor? like my new sailboat?

osama bin laden's brother (?) lived in the top penthouse on the right.

my new ride:

why didn't we think of doing this?

boston:

i ride the orange line everyday. i love my sister, but she is not cut out for public transportation (she has personal space issues):

in other news:

i've finall made some friends. i had some girls from church over last sunday. we went swimming despite the very chilly water. tomorrow we are going to castle island (or something like that) for an afternoon of picnicking and outdoor activities. today i'm co-hosting a pool party with allison for ladies from our church. it stormed all day yesterday so people may not swim, but at least the weather is gorgeous today. i've already put my camera in my purse so hopefully i'll remember to take pictures. i also need new pictures of whitney and malarie. and pictures of allison's garden (i have definitely been enjoying the abundance of squash and cucumbers), and the windows that i've helped install, and the awesome playhouse that allison built (that i helped with, although i didn't do much).

i've been missing mexico a lot lately. pita is getting married august 29th and i'm so sad i won't get to be there (side note: elizabeth is getting married today, radhika next saturday, and amanda september 5th and i won't be at any of them because they are all in texas). since i can't hop on a plane and visit, which would make me incredibly happy, i decided to ease my disappointment by making some home made salsa this morning. YUM! and, i tamed the hotness so i can share with friends. i also made guacamole when megan was here. i'll be in texas for christmas. maybe i can make a side trip...