Day 360: Mantra Monday + Body Image Nightmare Update

The fam: Peter, Mom, Me, Michael, Dad, Hanna!
All together again this weekend, for the first time since this picture was taken.

With a Body Positive Bonanza to plan, and family visiting from out-of-town for said party, it's shaping up to be a hectic week.  I am SO excited to see my parents and little brother, Peter, this coming weekend!  They're making the trip all the way from St. Louis, MO and Madison, WI, respectively.  In light of the week's events and visitors, my mantra is:

Tell people how much you love and appreciate them.

I'm hard at work thinking of ways to do this at the party this weekend... So many of my "couldn't have done this without you!" folks will be there!  Any (inexpensive) suggestions?

Also - I have an important update regarding my recent body-image nightmares: they were probably drug-induced!  No, seriously.  I had another weird one on Thursday night (involving cupcakes and the inability to stop eating them.  Yes, it was a nightmare, I swear!).  I woke up feeling really anxious and generally lousy.  In the midst of bitching at Michael over something petty, it hit me:  This does NOT feel like me.  Something is up.  What - other than an impending "first look" party - might be going on? (cue suspenseful music)

An exhaustive google search of all the cold/cough/allergy/sinus-infection meds I've been taking landed me on a planet I like to call "Planet Duh."  It turns out that ciproflaxen - the antibiotic that's finally banishing the last of my symptoms - has some very interesting side effects, including:

"...restlessness, insomnia, nightmares, dizziness, tremor, headache, or irritability [...] Such symptoms can be made worse by coffee..."

You read that correctly: Insomnia, Nightmares, and Irritability (Oh My!)  Add to this the fact that I've been drinking more coffee than usual (to perk me up from the antihistamine-stupor), and suddenly we have a hypothesis.  To test said hypothesis, I cut out antihistamines and coffee over the weekend, and I've been feeling much, much better.  No more nightmares!  My last dose of cipro was this morning, so I'm predicting a rapid abatement of all freaky emotional symptoms.  Wish me luck!