Enduring Plum

On Sunday the 12th I received my first profesionally inked tattoo! It was a great experience and I couldn't be more pleased with the design; it's the Imperial Cog (like from Star Wars), but it's an inverted image, so that the cog is actually my skin with the ink forming the image around it. It's truly a geeky tattoo, but it's also very sexy and pretty hardcore.
While Allen*, Anne* and I were driving to Crescent City Tattoo Company I wasn't nervous at all, later while I was waiting for Travis, the tattooist, to prepare his workstation I wasn't nervous, but the moment I climbed into the chair, my back to Travis so that he could start his work, it flashed through my mind so quickly that I almost didn't think it "I can't believe I'm doing this! I should leave," and then, rather sternly "What the hell am I worried about, I can't chicken out now!" As soon as Travis actually put the needle to my skin all my fears were erased, it hurt, but it wasn't so bad that I won't get another tattoo, in fact I actually found the sensation quite enjoyable.
I want to return for my second tattoo in November, three months from now and then my third tattoo three months from November, in February. The length of time is very important to me as is the number of tattoos I'm having placed on my back-- mystical Number Three; it's a very holy number, very feminine and mysterious. The symbolism of my tattoos is extremely important to me as well, even though they can also be easily explained superficially to strangers, the deeper meaning I have only divulged to my closest friends.

The next Sunday, the 18th, was inventory night at the big bookstore at which I work. Being a member of the inventory team means that I absolutely had to be there from nine o'clock at night till four in the morning. I didn't mind at all, because I prefer sleeping during the day and I'm just always much more alert and energetic at night, but it was very tedious and exhausting work-- counting books and CDs, making price lists of special ordered books and multimedia (CDs and DVDs) and the completing the additional paperwork involved in that. At least I know that my immediate supervisor and the General Manager have a lot of faith in me, they did assign me several of the most difficult and important tasks; it made me feel special and valued (I guess that's good management), now if only they'd pay me more...

On Tuesday the 19th I had my first doctor's appointment at the LSU/New Orleans Ob/Gyn clinic, the place for girls like me who are poor and without insurance! The waiting was miserable, but I do have faith in my new, and extremely beautiful, doctor. Dr. Leslie* was very, very thourough, however she wants to avoid surgery and just treat my pain using Alesse, a type of birth control pill, which is not a method with which I'm comfortable. Since there is no other way to diagnose me I would much rather undergo surgery so that I can know if I have endometriosis like my doctor's suspect, or ovarian cancer for which I am at high risk because it runs in my family on both sides. Not knowing has been very stressful for me, almost as stressful as the nearly constant, often extremely severe abdominal pain I suffer. The next time I see Dr. Leslie* I will insist on the laparoscopic surgery, what else can I do?