Doctor Shannon

I love my new doctor. Like really, really love.

It all started with my arm. A few weeks ago I discovered a little bump that slowly became a larger bump on my upper right arm. I had just made the big girl purchase of real insurance in California (as opposed to the catastrophic insurance I had previously) so I needed to begin the search for a doctor. As someone who tries pretty hard to not go to the doctor I had no idea where to start looking other than the internet. Luckily I found a lovely little family practice not too far from me that had a bunch of great reviews (which BTW I should totally start a site about doctors and how to find one. You heard it here first.). After reviewing all of the doctors at the practice I decided on a younger (under 40) physician that seemed super nice from her bio and called the office to set an appointment. The front desk was so nice and helpful that immediately I knew I found the right place.  The only thing was that in order to get in as soon as possible I would need to see the LPN rather than the doctor, which is totally fine by me. The LPN was wonderful and decided to go with an easy round of antibiotics that can sometimes solve the issue I had super quick like (in case you are wondering it is just an abscess, which I am not linking to. Gross.).

After a week of trying the least invasive treatment and not having it work, I had to return to the office and this time I was going to see the doctor herself. Immediately upon arrival in the room she started chatting with me, because we of course had not met before and she wanted to make proper introductions. I was just super happy she even knew that I was a new patient.

After our intro's we went right into my stupid bump and she explained she was indecisive about changing anti-biotic types and that she was going to cut me open. She actually said it like that, "cut me open". Then told me it sounded much worse than it actually was going to be and not to worry. OK, cool. She proceeded started looking for the items needed to 'cut me open' and had some troubles trying locating them so she enlisted a nurse that was walking by to help. At this point in the story my friend said that most people would be concerned, but I lose my cell phone at least 5 times a day so not finding a scalpel is not big deal to me.

Scalpel now located, she pulls out the freezy stuff that numbs you up before they make the incision. She did inform me that there is a more technical term for the freezy stuff if I wanted to know it, but in between giggles I said I preferred the term freezy stuff. The rest of the visit went pretty much the same way with more nicknames for things and discussing the fact that I took it upon myself to expand on the alcohol consumption question* when I filled out the patient forms on my initial visit. We wrapped it up by finally deciding what antibiotic to put me on and a quick recap of our favorite actor. That's when I realized she is me, but super doctor smart me. At least I imagine that is exactly how I would be if I was a doctor and could stand dealing with things like abscess' (which considering I won't even link to it, I don't think I would ever have a career medicine). Dude it's fate that I found her.

Now I need to find a dentist. Any good recommendations on how to start that search??

*I felt it was important to state that I normally consume very little in the alcohol department unless I am around my girlfriends or have an incredible bottle of wine, then all bets are off. Apparently no one else gives this type of information and they thought it was somewhere between helpful and funny. Which was kind of the point. Those forms are so boring to fill out (and I assume read) so I try and make it fun while keeping to the facts. You should see what I wrote about asthma...kidding...kinda.

Juiced

Well I have done it. I ordered a juice cleanse. With the large amount of travel I have been doing my eating habits have been all over the place. I want to get back to a more fresh and healthy base and a juice cleanse is a great way for me to get started. So I took the plunge and ordered up some fresh, raw juice.

I ended up ordering the Blueprint Cleanse, foundation level 3 day. I chose Blueprint because it has been recommend by so many blogger and online 'friends' that it seemed like the obvious choice for me. The foundation level has 6 juices that you drink throughout the day; three green juices, P.A.M. (pineapple, apple, mint. My hands down favorite), lemon cayenne and a cashew milk. All of the juices are pretty tasty, but if I had to pick one I wasn't a super fan of it would the cashew milk. This could be because I am not a fan of milk cow, goat, almond, soy, rice or whatever so that could be part of it, but the cashew milk is still totally drinkable.

Today is day two and I am feeling pretty good. I have a bit of a headache due to the caffeine withdrawal, but I can have a half cup of coffee if I really want. I can even add the cashew milk to it if I am feeling the need for a cream taste. Other than that I have plenty of energy and will be heading out for a run shortly. Overall so far so good. I don't even miss solids foods yet.

Now I just have to pack for my trip to Arizona (aka surface of the sun hot). Sounds fun yes?

Yes I Have a Blog, Facebook and twitter

And I am not afraid to use them. If you are friends with me on Facebook you probably saw this picture:

Delta made me do it. Limoncello & bubbles.

At the time I was being nice and didn't mention the airlines name giving them the benefit of the doubt. While we are working with the KLM desk here in the Netherlands and they are doing everything they can to help us solve our issue, the bigger question I want to get solved is how are they (Delta/Air France/KLM) going to avoid this in the future. I am hoping that by continuing to push this issue that we can make sure that the gap of information between the three airlines is solved quickly, which is why on the night I posted this picture (Tuesday) I also submitted a comment/complaint letter on the Delta site. Well today in the continuing ongoing saga of Airline vs. Ms. Shannon I had an email exchange going back and forth with the people that monitor the comments/complaints form submission at Delta/Air France/KLM and I have officially lost my mind and have decided to post it all over the Internet.

Below are the email messages* back and forth between myself and the people on the web form end...at least that's what I thought. Blue highlight is from me, all other content from the airline starting with the original form submitted on the Delta.com site and ending with the mail I sent back to them today. (If you want to skip ahead to the bottom read the last two mails.)

Original Message Follows: ------------------------

  

Delta Air Lines Current Reservation Form

Title: Mr

First Name: (name removed)

Last Name: (name removed)

Reply-To Email Address: removed

Airline Program: KL

Frequent Flyer Number: 8xxxxxxxx 

Country: NL

Flight Date: 6/xx/2012

Flight Number: DL02xx

Origin City: AMS

Destination City: xxx

Confirmation Number:

Ticket Number:

Message: This is the most perplexing issue I have ever come across. For

ticket, number xxxxxx, I made a change to the ticket back in May for the Sunday, July xx trip. I then had to call and make another change. At this point I was told that my ticket does not allow for changes. I thought this was completely odd since I already made a change to the ticket, but I looked all over the my receipts and online for anywhere that it states that I can't make changes and couldn't find any. I then called the customer service desk and asked to have them help me find where this is located. One

hour and 30 minutes later, no one can show me where I can find the rules and restrictions where it says I can't make changes. I have been passed off to 5 people currently working on my 6th and still no one can tell me anything. To top it off one of your supervisors (name removed) from Cincinnati was extremely rude and interrupting me constantly and could only pass me off to yet another person.

According to her you can only talk to one supervisor or call back to get a different one. This seems highly ineffective especially when said supervisor is unable to give me any information. I have only had great service in the past so this particular call really makes it upsetting that I can't get anyone to tell me where I can find online or on my ticket where it says no changes permitted. It absolutely does not say that anywhere. I would really like an answer on how Delta/KLM/Air France plan to make sure this doesn't happen in the future, because as of now this Platinum member is at their wits end.

Submitted: Tue Jun 19 2012 22:29:04 GMT+0200 (CEST)

On 6/20/12 4:12 PM, "Delta Websupport" <Websupport@jv1.delta.com> wrote:

Dear (name removed),

We thank you for your e-mail.

  

After we checked your reservation we saw that you had already contacted

one of our colleagues by telephone. We hope that all your questions have been answered. Should you have more questions, please do not hesitate to contact us by phone.

We hope this information has been helpful to you. If you require more

detailed information, please contact Delta Air Lines Reservations at +31 (0)20 721 9128 (Mon.-Fri.

8:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m., Sat.-Sun.

9:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m.).

Kind regards,

(Name removed)

Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Delta Air Lines

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

  

Original Message Follows:

------------------------

We are working directly with the KLM desk here in the Netherlands, but my concern is that one the supervisor I talked to was completely out of line rude and two that I had almost everyone I talked to tell me that I was wrong, lying and absolutely couldn't have booked the ticket on Delta.com. There has got to be some contingency in place for this partner program. It makes zero sense as to why no one was able to answer my questions. It's extremely frustrating as (name removed) is a loyal flying blue member and that no one could see exactly what was going on with our ticket. Is this something that will be resolved in the future?

Shannon Anderson

Blog: http://www.redwineandhighheels.com/

Twitter: @shannonin30s

On 6/21/12 8:28 AM, "Delta Websupport" <Websupport@jv1.delta.com> wrote:

Dear Mr. (name removed),

We acknowledge receipt of your comments.

If you wish to share your concerns with us, you can do so at

www.delta.com. Simply, click on the tab

"Comment/Complaint?", this will take you to a form that you can complete

and send.

Once you are on the page 'Have a Comment or Complaint?", in the section

"Tell Us About Your Experience" please choose the option "Customer Care" and then "complaint"and complete the form.

We thank you for your understanding.

Kind regards,

Name removed

Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Delta Air Lines

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Last Reply, Today 12:09PM

That's where this thread is from. Are you suggesting I resubmit what I wrote before on the same page again? This is absolutely ridiculous!

Shannon Anderson

Blog: http://www.redwineandhighheels.com/

Twitter: @shannonin30s

*I removed personal information and airline employees names to protect the innocent and those that think reading is hard.

So yeah, I am pissed.

Extended

Last week I was lazy and posted this picture without too much information.

Well a few of you have guessed what it is, but I thought I would finally share the secret. I got lash extensions and they are FAB-U-LOUS. What you see above is without mascara and is how I wake up in the morning. How lovely is that? I sometimes just throw one some tinted moisturizer and call it good with so little effort that the cost of maintaining these pays off in ease alone. I love them so much that the thought of waking up with my own longish but blond lashes is just not going to happen any time soon. The lashes last about 4-6 weeks, but you can do touch ups every 2-3 weeks to keep them full and lovely all the time. Guess which route I am going?

If you are in the OC (or want to drive there) I suggest going to Lash Spot, which is where I went. The people were fantastic and the lashes are great!

The Cut

Remember when I was complaining about how long my hair was and how I was too chicken to find a new hair stylist? Well I sucked it up and got my hair cut about two weeks ago. It was not the best cut, but it wasn't the worst either. It lacked structure, but I figured I would just grow it out a bit and hopefully see my lovely stylist from Seattle at some point. Well as luck would have it she and I had a chance to catch up for coffee while I am here in town and she offered to take a look at my hair and see if there was anything she could do. Well she did and there was and I am super grateful she is so awesome. Never under estimate the power of a good hair cut. It can make your day, lift your mood and boost your confidence. I am officially out of pony tail mode. Yay!

If you are in the Seattle area, I can't recommend Jamie enough. She is located in West Seattle, but worth the drive from any direction. You can find her the La Petite Salon website or by calling the salon at 206-937-0886. Just don't make it totally impossible for me to get an appointment.

No smile, but the best photo of the hair that
I could manage last night.

And She's Off

Welcome to my first post done entirely with my phone. It's done this way because after a day full of crazy I am just to lazy to go upstairs and get my laptop. Instead I am watching GCB and refusing to move from the couch. So hopefully the spelling and grammatical errors will only be slightly worse than normal. Tomorrow I head out the door for a super quick trip to the beautiful city of Seattle for some work related items and hopefully a few drinks or meals (or both) with my partners in crime. Unfortunately it is a super quick trip since I am headed back to the Netherlands to have some quality time with kids and BF. Someone really needs to work on creating a time and space continuum thingy so we can all have more time together.

Today I have discovered two things that I am going to keep in my arsenal until the end of time or the zombie menace happens, whichever happens first. One - I have reconfirmed that waxing sucks. Sugaring is truly the only way to go. For real yo. If you haven't checked it out. You need to immediately. Two - I will never be with out my new lashes. They are fabulous. I will follow up with details once I am not so darn lazy, but until then...

Sky High

Off we go again. We are headed out today to the Netherlands for the majority of the month of March. I have vowed not to get sick and/or have crappy skin because of the airplane. I totally have the sickness under control with everything I can (Emergen-C, Advil, AYR, etc.) and for the skin I am working a new hydrating toner. I discovered this one when I treated myself to a facial for my birthday at Massage Envy since it was a rockin' good deal and really who says no to a facial? They use Murad products which I have never really tried so I was excited to give it a go. During the facial Erin (the esthetician) was telling she was putting on a toner and I was struck by how lovely it smelled. She filled me in on the benefits of it for my skin and how it can really help me since I travel back and forth between to different environments. So I went home and did some research on it and went back the next day to purchase it. It is great stuff and I am looking forward to seeing how this adds to my already extensive travel skin care routine. Curious about the product? It's Murad Hydrating Skin Toner and by the look of the reviews on the site I am not the only one loving this product! Totally worth a try if you are looking for a hydrating boost to your routine.

So while I will totally miss the Ocean, I am looking forward to getting back to Europe. I have some very important little people to see. Goodbye warm Southern California we will return soon.

Health Care is two words worth lots of money

After I quit my job in September I looked into several insurance plans (COBRA is not an option unless you have a bank roll) and came to realize that for me and my situation having a full insurance plan was throwing money away. If I went with the standard individual plans (Ha! Standard, as if. These plans are more confusing than IKEA furniture directions) I would be spending more money out of pocket each month than I would if I went to the doctor for my yearly appoints with one or two unplanned visits and paid cash. That's not even counting the deductible that I would need to meet. So I decided to purchase the catastrophic insurance aka "Cancer Insurance" that kicks in should you have a super duper bad disease but doesn't cover anything else and decided to roll the dice on the rest.

Yesterday was the first day that I had to go to the doctor without insurance. Things had gotten pretty uncomfortable with my 'cold' and the BF told me it was time to see someone and I agreed. After a little research for a clinic close to where I am I came across the Minute Clinic (MC) located in a CVS not far from where I am at and decided to try this out as opposed to a Urgent Care (nothing against urgent care, but I didn't feel like waiting in line). Turns out the Minute Clinic was exactly what I needed. I arrived and filled out my information on a computer (general information and why I was there) and was immediately taken into a room with an LPN. After an in-depth Q&A session, my vitals were taken and she asked me a few more questions and concluded that I had a sinus and ear infection, chest congestion and an asthma flare up (the last one I knew about). I was given my prescriptions, asked if I had any questions and if it was ok for her to follow up with me in a couple of days (when was the last time your doctor followed up with you?). After talking with the girl at the CVS pharmacy she was able to make sure any of my prescriptions that could be generic and/or discounted were and for under $200 ($89 MC visit and 4 prescriptions) I was out the door. That was actually one of the better medical visits I have had in recent years.

I am not implying that this is the best solution for everything and in fact it isn't. For what I have going on this was a quick, easy and inexpensive solution (Visit the MC site for a list of services they offer). For those of you without insurance this can be a valuable resource, but there is still the issue that we don't have affordable health care readily available everywhere (MC is not available at all CVS or even all states and there are similar clinics at Walgreens that I found online but have not personally experienced). Long and short of it is that I am not an expert on this, but I am getting informed. I have options and picked one that made the most sense for ME. Even if you have insurance through your company, state or spouse you should learn about how the health care changes affect you. http://www.healthcare.gov/ is a good place to get started on understanding how the Affordable Health Care Act can help you (or not). Reading opinion pieces on how people think this affects you is not good enough. What works for me may not work for you so get educated. Affordable health care should not be so hard.

*Update - through the power of twitter I was given this handy link which is a great resource for finding a clinic (any clinic) near you! http://hc311.com/

Getting off my soapbox now and back to the beach.

Stay. just a little bit longer

So finally the trip that led to the first post is happening and my first experience at the Stay. hotel in New York City. I have had the great opportunity to stay at some of the fancy and lovely hotels in New York and some of the not so great. You can always tell who was paying by where I was staying! So I have seen the highs and lows of the NYC bed scene and was excited to try the Stay. hotel. It looked hip and modern by way of the web site and the reviews were pretty good overall with the only caveat being the rooms were small. As I have traveled in Europe on the cheap I can tell you I have seen small rooms, so I was ready to be surprised at how much bigger they really are or shocked at how small they were for two people.

The hotel when you walk through the door appears small, but once you pass the fish tank in the front you realize that it is a modern boutique hotel with white furniture, floors, and stainless steel finishes. There is a bar and a dining area on the opposite side of check in and in the back. The elevators, hallways are not for the claustrophobic, but then I also think that New York as a whole is not. When I booked a room on the website I chose a king bed room and sent in a request for a room with a closet since I had read on one review that not all rooms include a closet. So I figured it can't hurt to request and sure enough we got a closet! This is not to say that the room had space for a meeting, but I could comfortably walk around the bed without tripping over anything. The bathroom was not very wide, but long and I felt was more than adequate for what we needed. So score for the hotel! While I wouldn't host a party in the room I had no problem with hanging out, watching TV and resting in the room.

The staff is friendly in the New Yorkers way and overall my experience was great. If you are looking to stay in Midtown it's a great location. If you have been to New York a million times it may be a little close to Times Square, but if you like me needed to be in the area, it's far enough off 7th that you can walk out the hotel without getting run over by a million tourists. Overall this is was a great little hotel that had real windows for fresh air, green bath products, and environmentally friendly initiatives. Not too bad for the price either! Worth trying out the next time you happen to be visiting NYC.

Also I finally saw Jersey Boys. Loved it!!!

Green products from the Stay. hotel. Love the soap, they don't make it a full soap to cut down on waste!!

No scrubs

Twice a week I exfoliate followed by an enzyme peel and then a moisturizing mask like clockwork. That is unless I have other plans that get in the way of such things. Then I see the bad things that happen to my skin. Like right now. As in today. Totally sucks. I have sensitive dry skin that hates the changing of the seasons and right now my skin is in full freak out mode. This particular 'at home facial' mixture of products works really well for my skin, but I have learned through trial and error that the exfoliate process is one of the most important things especially if I forget to do my routine and only have a few minutes. My secret product allows me to skip the other steps at least once a week if I absolutely have to miss the full experience. After years of trying different types I found my Holy Grail of facial exfoliates, Eminence Strawberry Rhubarb Dermafoliant.

Seriously this is one of those OMG moments the very first time I tried. I happened to come across this product as a recommendation from one of the Sugar Sugar goddesses, Tobi. She said and I quote, "Your skin will feel like butter" and I swear on my wine glass that it did! It's a light exfoliate that gently (and I truly mean gentle, my boss has the most sensitive skin known to man and can use this stuff) removes the layer of yuck on your skin and leaves nothing but soft, pretty looking skin. It also uses a super small amount so the cute milk container looking jar lasts forever! I swear I should be running out by now, but it still keeps coming. Besides all of the rest of this wonderful things it does this is a truly organic product. So you can feel confidant about what you are putting on your skin won't have crazy effects on you or the environment! Oh and did I mention that is smells AWESOME? Well it does.

The entire Eminence line is pretty darn amazing. OK so I can't say I have tried every single thing, but I have tried a lot of their stuff and I have not come across anything that hasn't been lovely on my skin and my dog likes the blueberry masks a lot. He seems to think my face mask is a snack, while it isn't he can actually eat it as there is nothing to hurt him or me included in the ingredients. We call this winning and not in a creepy Charlie Sheen way.

You can get Eminence products in more places now online then ever before and if you live in Seattle I know Sugar Sugar carries the vast majority of the line. Keep in mind all of the products contain no water so you use less and the product lasts much longer so in the long run it is very affordable!

Sweet Tooth

Summer is right around the corner. Really I swear it is! See if you live in Seattle like myself you truly would not believe a word of this. Every time we get a great and glorious Pacific Northwest day, the next day it is cold, gray and raining. The good news is that even if the sun doesn't shine we can always hop a plane to somewhere nice and sunny and most importantly WARM!

Regardless of where you get your summer we all have the same issue of hair removal and while some of you do this year round, some are more selective. We don't judge and completely understand. However you do it we all appreciate you doing it and realize the pain, suffering and expense that goes with it. If you are just a brow and bikini girl or if you are shoulder to toe kind of girl (or boy) I am sure you have heard about every type of hair removal; Wax, threading, laser, prayer, even just a little bleach to hide it. I have tried it all and can honestly say that I have truly found my end all be all solution. Today we are going to talk about sugaring. Yup sugar and seriously that is exactly what it is. I used to get my brows waxed every three to four weeks and for years I never had any issues other than 24 hours of pink on my forehead,not ideal, but no biggie. Then IT happened. I opted for a bikini wax at a very good waxing spa since i was going on vacation and I thought it would be so much more convenient to not worry about these things and just have a good time. Let's just say that I believe that I left a huge chunk of my skin there as well as hair. Not cute and/or sexy. Beyond super painful, it was damn near a doctor visit afterwards and trust me it was the end of waxing days. Isn't the point of a bikini wax, to be super sexy in your bikini? I was not super sexy with my wax.

So what's a girl who couldn't tweeze her way out of a wet paper bag to do? Well let's just say the Internet is my friend and while I had heard of sugaring I had no idea what it was. My dear friend, Internet, not only told me about the process and reviews it also told me about locations near me, which lead me to the girls at Sugar Sugar, located here in Seattle. I was so lucky because I found Michelle there, who was a good listener and understood that I was going to work my way up to the bikini and need my brows tested for months before heading south. Let's just say since my first visit I vowed to never put wax on my body again and so far I have not. I have shared my sugar experiences with my friends and co-workers (who are all rolling their eyes right now), but it seriously was a total body care changer for me. I would rather wait an extra week for a sugar appointment than go wax. I do not kid my friends, not when it comes to hair removal. The pros of sugaring are vast and numerous, but here are some highlights; less pain (I swear it is so and I don't mean there is zero pain, but it sucks a little less than other methods), due to the nature of sugar you can grab smaller hairs so less grow out is needed, the pinkness lasts about 1 hour and not all day, organic, less wasteful (no papers, sticks and such like with wax) and seriously do you need more? Call your local sugaring place and give it a try. Worst case scenario you can leave me a nasty comment. Best case scenario you can send me a bottle of wine.

If you happen to live in Seattle I do highly recommend Sugar Sugar in Green Lake. I love all the ladies there. They do super work and I know you would be in good hands. Also, you need to check out their organic products and items in the store. FABULOUS. I will be posting about that in the super near future!