Malyss

Primarily, I enjoy expressing my creativity in various ways: papermaching, crocheting, sewing (stuffed animals, pillows, clothing), painting, making jewelry, steampunking items and more. Last year, my husband & I attended our first Steampunk World’s Fair. I prepared some water and Nerf guns in the Steampunk style to bring with us, sewed a Western style vest for my husband, and more to assist us in having some entry level costuming bits. For the past three years, we’ve been participating in the Asbury Park Zombie Walk. In 2010, we helped the walk to achieve its goal of breaking the Guinness World Record for largest gathering of zombies. In 2011, I was interviewed by the Star Ledger while at the walk. That was fun. For the zombie walks, I assemble my own costumes, do my hair and make up and generally have a fabulous time getting my share of the attention from spectators. While I am shy, I do have a tendency to be a slight bit of an attention whore.

My husband and I have been together since January 2003. We met at an online dating site and no one has turned out to be an axe murderer, yet. Throughout the years, he has always been wonderfully warm and supportive. He’s my best friend and my love. On May 8, 2010, we had our wedding on a beach near his parents’ beach house. It was beautiful and meant a lot to us as we really enjoy visiting that beach town and spending time at his parents’ place. Our wedding was so much fun. After the beach wedding, the wedding party climbed onto two 4-person bicycle surreys (like what you see on the boardwalks in shores towns) and peddled the two miles from the beach to our reception site. It was a very windy ride as we had a strong head wind, but despite that challenge it was so much fun. Peddling in a large wedding dress is a difficult feat, but I managed it somehow!

So, I live with my husband and our Corgi/German Shepherd mix, Brando. We adopted Brando over a year and a half ago from a local shelter. He is a perfect addition to our household. I have a B.S. in psychology & a certificate in gerontology, but I work at a local warehouse in the shipping department. In this economy, I am just glad to have an office job that pays above the average. My husband is working on finding a teaching job (he’s qualified to teach history/social studies to grades 6^th and above), but at least he is working at his old high school as a teacher’s aide/one on one aide with a special needs student.

Surgery-wise: I had my surgery on 2/22/12 with Doctor Harish Kakkilaya. I was extremely pleased to find a well qualified bariatric surgeon in my own backyard. His practice is just 15 minutes from my home and the hospital where he performs his surgeries is less than 20 minutes away from me. He has selected a wonderful group of people to be part of his support staff. Everyone at his office has always been wonderful to me. My husband and I attended an orientation meeting with him and his staff back around September or so and we were impressed. Dr. K. is very good. He’s pleasant and willing to explain things. While I was in the hospital after my surgery, all of the nurses spoke very highly of him with regards to his surgical abilities as well as his concern for his patients & how he’s one of the few doctors at the hospital that regularly calls in to check on his patients, etc. I feel as though I made a great choice and that my journey is going to go well.