One of the highlights of Mom’s trip this time around was our train ride to the Mission of San Juan Capistrano, one of the dozen or so missions that was founded in 1775. It’s a beautiful place and a great piece of history.

We rode the train up for fun. Mom hadn’t been on one in years, and trains always make me nostalgic for Europe. The train dropped us off in downtown San Juan Capistrano, a teeny town with a few touristy shops worth a browse. We ate some fantastic Mexican food before heading to the mission.

I took some pretty fantastic photos, if I do say so. The cathedral was half destroyed in an earthquake, but I love the graceful ruins as much as I would the whole thing. I am drawn to churches and love photographing them, though I long ago shed my connection to Catholicism.

In the photos you’ll see a saint showing a little leg (with a wound). I was curious myself. It’s Saint Peregrine, who was something of a hood as a kid. He came around to the church eventually. Then he found out he had cancer of the leg (is that a thing??) and prayed his ass off. The wound healed and he lived happily ever after.

It was a fantastic day. Well worth the next 6 days I spent in bed with an infection. (And don’t worry Jen, I’ll take you too).

I’ve had headaches for about 15 years. Nothing seems to cause them; I’ve taken dairy, gluten and just about everything else out of my diet. I’ve had a CATScan (or was it a MRI?). I’ve seen a spectrum of doctors, none of whom could find the cause.

I’ve also been on the pill for about 15 years. Coincidence? Turns out not. My new integrative health doctor saw the corollary immediately. I feel dumb it took $200 to find that out.

So apparently taking the pill for half your life isn’t good. It’s depleted the nutrient levels in my body, and caused headaches for me.

The other side to this is that I started getting more frequent headaches when drinking alcohol. Yes, I know what causes this. Alcohol. But Mama ain’t taking teetotalling as an option here, so I was thrilled to find out it was the pill on that count too.

Anything you ingest, like pills, goes through your liver. So does alcohol. Apparently my liver was already working overtime to take care of this birth control pill that it didn’t have energy to process my steady stream of wine and imbibements, so it gave me a headache to thank me.

I got off the pill a month ago and haven’t had a single headache. Coincidence? I hope not.

I now have a chemical and estrogen free IUD (if that’s not TMI) and adjusting. I love the fact that I’m chemical free. I think as women we assume that the pill is ok and no gyno is going to tell us that it might be a good idea to get off after decades, but really, what medicine is safe long term?

Maybe it’s time you got off the pill too?

It’s been a nonstop joy ride around here. First I was in Wisconsin, doing nothing but drinking wine and enjoying the company of my oldest and dearest friend. Max got used to a house full of loud-ass dogs, and even worked his way up to feeding them.

I ate a lot of cheese. Because that’s what you do in Wisconsin. Max hates cheese:

Next, on to BlogHer. It’s a great conference, and I love seeing people I connect with online. I think it’ll be my last year, though. As The Hub points out, I identify less as a blogger, simply because I blog professionally through Egg. The conference is heavily centered around mom bloggers, and while, yes, I blog here about being a mom, I don’t identify as a mom blogger. I’m primarily a business blogger, and those were hard to find at the conference.

Still, I scored some serious schwag at the show:

Then Mom came. We had the best time. Went to Temecula wine country. Drank wine. Went to a food tour of Coronado. Drank wine. Ate out. Shopped at my fave middle eastern grocery store. Drank-okay, you get my point.

And The Hub’s business partner/friend came and I made awesome gumbo.

Then Max had his party. We had it in our cul-de-sac so that lots of people could come and grownups could enjoy-you guessed it-wine. Yea. The camera battery died and we have virtually no photos of our own kid. My fault. Blame the wine.

Then I got sick. Yaaay. A cold turned into a weeklong sinus infection that I’m cautiously saying I think I’m getting over. It’s been a hell of a way to end such an awesome summer.

Feels like the summer has gone by too quickly.